Christian’s Story

Patient Christian Ehrhard smiling during a clinic visit.

Earlier this year, Christian Patrick Ehrhard suffered a major stroke while getting ready for work in Corpus Christi, Texas. He was rushed to San Antonio, where he underwent an emergency thrombectomy for an occlusion of his internal carotid artery, one of the main vessels supplying blood to his brain. This procedure, in which a microcatheter (a small tube) and a stent was used to remove a clot through accessing the arteries in his brain, was performed at University Hospital, a Comprehensive Stroke Center staffed round-the-clock by a team of UT Health San Antonio Long School of Medicine Stroke Neurologists, Neurosurgeons, and Neurointensivists. He later underwent a hemicraniectomy in which part of his skull was removed to reduce the pressure placed on his brain due to swelling from the stroke. Christian subsequently returned to the hospital so he could undergo skull replacement surgery.

Last week, during a follow-up appointment, we got a chance to visit with Christian and his family to see how they were doing. Christian’s wife told us that she was pleased with the outcomes of both surgeries.

“Physically, you wouldn’t even know he had a stroke,” she told us. “Dr. Grandhi did a great job with the surgery and his continued care.”

Although Christian initially had trouble speaking after his first surgery, speech therapy has improved his communication.

We are pleased to see how far Christian has come and wish him well during his recovery.

Article Categories: News, Patient Stories