A patient’s story

William Thorell, M.D.

Dylan Murphy suffers from migraines.

Has for years.

And, the migraine that hit that Friday night in April 2010 seemed like the same-old, same-old.

By Sunday, though, the 28-year-old had lost 10 pounds. The ER physicians considered an MRI, but – given Murphy’s history of migraines – decided against it.

After a week at his parents’ Hastings home, he returned to Lincoln ready to go back to work. But that Monday, he woke in such intense pain he was unable to use his phone or computer for help.

Dylan Murphy today, with girlfriend Carrie Neukirch

“Later, I saw some text message I’d tried to send. It was gibberish.”

He eventually was able to contact a friend for a ride to the hospital.

By Tuesday, MRIs had been taken.

“They said ‘aneurysm’ at that point,” Murphy said. “They said ‘brain bleed.'”

Murphy’s parents said: We’re going to Omaha, to UNMC, to William Thorell, M.D.

The family knew Dr. Thorell – he had performed surgery on Murphy’s grandfather. They were impressed enough with his work to have Murphy taken by ambulance to UNMC.

Dr. Thorell remembers the case, though it was not an uncommon one, he said.

“There is bacteria in the bloodstream, it shoots to the brain and starts an infection there,” he said.

Usually, this will cause a brain abscess – in Murphy’s case, it caused a brain aneurysm.

“Those are likely to bleed,” Dr. Thorell said. “His bled.”

Dr. Thorell needed to remove the infected part of the blood vessel, which can be tricky.

“You have to interrupt the blood vessel, and you don’t know exactly what happens when you do that,” he said. “You have to be careful, make sure you’re not disturbing the brain tissue around it.

“But those are what we do every day.”

Still, it wasn’t an everyday occurrence for Murphy. That’s why in April, on the three-year anniversary of his operation, he called UNMC.

Did we know we have one of the best doctors in the world? That he was in surgery a half-hour after arriving at the hospital? That Dr. Thorell already had completed a full shift? (Dr. Thorell doesn’t remember it as a particularly long day.)

“I am forever indebted to him,” Murphy says today. “He didn’t have to do what he was asked to do that day – he’d obviously already put in a full day’s work – but he saw someone that needed his assistance, and he just did it.”