{"id":819693,"date":"2026-07-23T00:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T00:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819693\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T00:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T00:11:10","slug":"montreal-doctors-perform-brain-surgery-on-pregnant-patient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819693\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal doctors perform brain surgery on pregnant patient"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zupa Nakayi-Semitego suffered a stroke while five months pregnant. She had surgery at The Neuro. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Zupa Nakayi-Semitego was working out at the gym in January 2025 when she felt a sudden pop in her head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI was very dizzy. I couldn\u2019t see properly, I was seeing blurry,\u201d said the Dollard-des-Ormeaux resident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In severe pain, she went to the hospital, where doctors found she had suffered a stroke that caused bleeding in her brain.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Dr. Marie-Christine Brunet, a neurosurgeon at The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital), says Nakayi-Semitego was diagnosed with a cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a rare tangle of blood vessels in the brain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThe incidence is about one or two per 100,000 population,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GE47O64U5ZHGJCBG4FCFUUOGXU.jpeg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/>Stroke Brain scans showed Zupa Nakayi-Semitego had suffered a stroke. (Photo supplied) <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Nakayi-Semitego needed surgery to fix the bleed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">But her case was complex, she was also 23 weeks pregnant.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Doctors gave her the option to delay the operation until after she gave birth. If left untreated, it carried the risk of a coma or death.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Nakayi-Semitego chose to move ahead with surgery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI had a feeling that my baby will be okay,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/53SGI4RAVBDQJHZQYVEWEZOFVU.jpeg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/>Zupa Nakayi-Semitego Zupa Nakayi-Semitego and her baby are pictured. (Photo supplied) <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Her instincts proved correct. At seven months pregnant, she went through a 10-hour surgery and recovered well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">And in May 2025, she gave birth to her baby girl, carried to full term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Dr. Brunet said pulling it off took a full team effort, with specialists from the Montreal Children\u2019s Hospital standing by throughout the operation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cJust in case something would happen and we would have to deliver the baby prematurely,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Nakayi-Semitego has no doubt she was in the right hands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cShe did this incredible thing. She saved two lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zupa Nakayi-Semitego suffered a stroke while five months pregnant. She had surgery at The Neuro. Zupa Nakayi-Semitego was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[712,49,48,84],"class_list":["post-819693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}