![\"Sara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Sara-Hutchinson-16x9-1-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNeurosciences<\/p>\n
May 14, 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After years of unexplained symptoms and incorrect diagnoses, a former Division I athlete and nurse finally received a diagnosis \u2014 and coordinated care \u2014 that saved her life.<\/p>\n
For years, Sara Hutchinson tried to make sense of a body that no longer felt like her own.<\/p>\n
Sara’s symptoms began in 2016, when she was 21 and balancing life as a Division I rower and nursing student at the University of Iowa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite an intense training schedule and healthy habits, she began gaining weight rapidly. Panic attacks followed. Then came hair loss, severe acne, facial swelling and insomnia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over four years, Sara sought help from 12 different specialists, underwent exploratory surgery and multiple CT scans, and received a series of incorrect diagnoses \u2014 including, at one point, lung cancer.<\/p>\n
Trusting her instincts<\/p>\n
As the years passed and her symptoms worsened without answers, Sara, now in nursing graduate school, recalled a brief mention of\u00a0Cushing syndrome<\/a>\u00a0from her coursework\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 and felt compelled to revisit its symptoms. One by one, they aligned with her own.<\/p>\n Unable to shake her intuition, Sara pressed for more specialized testing \u2014 but says her concerns were repeatedly dismissed.<\/p>\n “I was advised to see a psychiatrist because they believed I was a hypochondriac,” Sara says.<\/a><\/p>\n After repeated rounds of testing and walking away with more questions than answers, Sara turned to\u00a0Mayo Clinic<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Mayo Clinic was my 13th opinion. I always call it my lucky number 13,” she says.<\/p>\n Assembling her care team<\/p>\n When Sara reached out to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in December 2020, she did not ask for general help. She specifically requested\u00a0Dr. Irina Bancos<\/a>, an endocrinologist, and\u00a0Dr. Jamie Van Gompel<\/a>, a neurosurgeon. Sara says she viewed them as her “dream team” \u2014 the people most likely to recognize what others had not.<\/p>\n The response from Mayo Clinic was immediate. At\u2011home lab kits were sent to Sara’s home in Iowa within 24 hours. She completed the testing,\u00a0sent\u00a0it back, and soon learned that her results showed a concerning elevation in her cortisol levels.<\/p>\n Dr. Bancos promptly scheduled a virtual visit with Sara to discuss the results.<\/p>\n “It was quite clear to me that Sara had\u00a0Cushing syndrome<\/a>\u00a0just by looking at her face through the computer screen,” Dr. Bancos says.<\/p>\n Cushing syndrome is the general term for cortisol overproduction and can cause symptoms such as rapid weight gain, a rounded or puffy “moon face,” acne, and purple stretch marks. Because the condition is rare and shares symptoms with more common disorders such as\u00a0polycystic ovary syndrome<\/a>, it is often misdiagnosed in young women.<\/p>\n There are several types of Cushing syndrome. The most common is caused by a small, usually noncancerous tumor in the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. The tumor produces excess adrenocorticotropic hormone, or ACTH, which signals the body to make too much cortisol.<\/p>\n When Cushing syndrome is caused this way, it is called Cushing disease.<\/p>\n Although Dr. Bancos suspected this diagnosis, confirmation required imaging and further evaluation with Dr. Van Gompel in Neurosurgery.<\/p>\n Finally, a diagnosis<\/p>\n “Throughout my illness, I hadn’t cried once,” Sara says. “The night before my first in-person appointment for imaging at Mayo Clinic was the first time I cried \u2014 not out of fear, but out of relief and hope that I was finally going to get answers.”<\/p>\n A\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>7-Tesla (7T) MRI<\/a>\u00a0at Mayo Clinic confirmed what her care team suspected: a\u00a0pituitary tumor<\/a>\u00a0was driving excess cortisol and causing Sara’s Cushing disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Sara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Sara-Hutchinson-Dr.-Jamie-Van-Gompel-1bx9-1024x576.jpg\")
Sara Hutchinson, nurse practitioner, and\u00a0\u00a0Dr. Jamie Van Gompel, neurosurgeon, reconnect at Mayo Clinic in 2026 \u2014 now as colleagues.<\/p>\n
![\"Sara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Sara-Hutchinson-with-patient-16x9-1-1024x576.jpg\")
Sara Hutchinson, nurse practitioner, cares for a patient in the Plastic Surgery Cleft and Craniofacial Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.<\/p>\n