{"id":312003,"date":"2026-05-28T06:14:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/312003\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T06:14:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:14:36","slug":"natspkg-available-tcu-senior-overcomes-three-brain-surgeries-thanks-to-uthealth-houston-surgeon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/312003\/","title":{"rendered":"NATSPKG AVAILABLE: TCU Senior Overcomes Three Brain Surgeries Thanks to UTHealth Houston Surgeon"},"content":{"rendered":"

NATSPKG:\u00a0https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1tbB01ITx1wG7Sr4VQ9LLhfvTgkAU1B5v\/view?usp=share_link<\/a><\/p>\n

SCRIPT:\u00a0https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1HYHkpysJ_uIxrbMsWnJIwraZIxTcgU_4yTa0e-_dg34\/edit?usp=sharing<\/a><\/p>\n

INTERVIEW:\u00a0https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1fHAO8Sgi7xRDzlt6k6tt9oa6-FFq8wF2\/view?usp=sharing<\/a><\/p>\n

BROLL:\u00a0https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1zpBNtcpR56ciH7esYlnEzjKMAiPTT0nB\/view?usp=sharing<\/a><\/p>\n

Newswise \u2014 When Humberto Rodriguez Lopez lay down for brain surgery in June 2021, he had no way of knowing the procedure would be the first in a five-year medical journey that spanned two countries and two states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then 15, Humberto hadn\u2019t quite grasped the magnitude of the cavernous angioma, a cluster of abnormal blood vessels in his brainstem, doctors had found. But he knew without the surgery, he had a high chance of severe disability or death. With surgery, there was also a chance his physical abilities would decline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not wanting to hold anything back, Humberto texted his high school crush and told her he had feelings for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIf I go, I’m not going to go with any regrets,\u201d Humberto remembers thinking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Humberto was diagnosed only two months before by doctors in Honduras, where he lived with his family, after he began experiencing symptoms during a tennis match. Over the next several days, his symptoms worsened into excruciating headaches and trouble with balancing and other basic motor functions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His doctors confirmed he had a cavernous angioma in his brainstem that had ruptured and bled. But there are only a few doctors in the world with the expertise to operate on them, none of whom were in Honduras.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like a ticking time bomb,\u201d Humberto said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His family was ultimately referred to\u00a0<\/a>Jacques J. Morcos, MD<\/a>, who was then practicing at the University of Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThis lesion is in the middle of the brainstem, which is a very dense and very critical collection of nerve tracts and nuclei of the brain. There is no room for error,\u201d said Morcos, now professor and chair of the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and co-director of UTHealth Houston Neurosciences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a 10-hour surgery and several months of physical therapy in Miami and Honduras, Humberto made a miraculous recovery. He was back in school, walking on his own, and had no cognitive deficits as a result of the procedure. But his journey was far from over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s happening again\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Morcos, who has done upward of 150 operations on brainstem cavernomas, informed Humberto and his family that he would likely need a future operation, as Humberto had a second small cavernous angioma near the first one but embedded deep in the brainstem.<\/p>\n

About 0.5% of the general population have a cavernous angioma somewhere in their brain, Morcos said, and one-tenth of these are in the brainstem. But the majority are incredibly small and don\u2019t require surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cavernous angiomas generally hemorrhage at a rate of 1% per year. But once they hemorrhage the first time, they are more likely to hemorrhage again, with a chance of 5% per year for those in the brainstem.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIn view of the risks involved, we do not operate on a brainstem angioma that is discovered incidentally. Surgery is only justified if one or more of the following is happening: It is causing symptoms, it’s bleeding, or it’s getting larger,\u201d said Morcos, who holds the John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Distinguished Chair at UTHealth Houston. \u201cAnd of those removed, 7% regrow. \u201cEven new ones could appear at different locations, particularly among familial types.\u201d<\/p>\n

By May 2025, Humberto was living a normal life. He had graduated high school and was enrolled at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, doing well in classes and actively involved in his fraternity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His symptoms that month started with a headache, similar to the one he experienced while playing tennis four years earlier. This time, though, Humberto also had a pulsating sensation behind his right eye, which he said felt as if someone was stepping on his brain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew what a headache was, and this wasn\u2019t that,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An MRI in Fort Worth confirmed Humberto and his family\u2019s fear\u2014the second cavernoma had ruptured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aI feel like my life was actually going great for once. I just started dating my girlfriend, I was president of my frat, and I was doing okay on my courses,\u201d Humberto said. \u201cIt was a moment where I had started taking on more responsibility, and was growing up more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He soon found himself in Morcos\u2019 office in the Texas Medical Center in Houston facing another brain surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the second rupture wasn\u2019t as severe, without an operation, the results can still be devastating. A hemorrhage in the brainstem can affect everything from a person\u2019s ability to walk and talk to their ability to eat and breathe on their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThis is the most devastating area to have something happen in your brain,\u201d Morcos said. \u201cThink of any of your senses, and it can affect it. Inability to hear, to move your face, inability to walk or communicate. Everything that makes us human, it\u2019s all bundled up in the brainstem. Think of it as the highest-priced real estate in the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humberto said he wasn\u2019t as afraid before his second surgery, in part because of the success Morcos had in 2021, and in part because of the confidence Morcos showed when Humberto was facing a second operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw Dr. Morcos being very confident in the surgery and that he could figure it out,\u201d Humberto said.<\/p>\n

Humberto\u2019s second surgery had a smoother recovery than his first. He spent time in Houston before going back to recover with his family in Honduras for the summer, and remembers feeling happy and healthy. By the fall, he was back at TCU attending classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in October, a familiar headache returned that made his stomach drop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would wake up late at night shivering and with this pain that I couldn\u2019t take away. I\u2019d hope for the best, thinking if I sit it out then eventually it would go away,\u201d Humberto said. \u201cI\u2019d start crying and saying, \u2018It\u2019s happening again. I don\u2019t want it to happen again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Another MRI in Fort Worth led Humberto back to Morcos\u2019 office. This time, however, his symptoms weren\u2019t caused by the cavernous angioma.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of the surgeries to correct the previous ruptures, Humberto had developed communicating \u200ahydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when cerebrospinal fluid is not being reabsorbed normally, resulting in enlargement of the ventricular cavities of the brain. It is not uncommon for people who have had operations on cavernous angiomas or other lesions, particularly when prior bleeding has taken place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of it like sediments in your pipes at home,\u201d Morcos said. \u201c\u200aThe fluid has high protein in it from the previous bleeding that has happened. That \u2018sediment\u2019 blocked the circulation of the spinal fluid.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

To address the problem, Morcos placed a shunt in Humberto\u2019s brain to allow the fluid to flow freely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a weird sense of calm before the surgery,\u201d Humberto said. \u201cDr. Morcos is probably the best in the world, so I was pretty confident everything was going to be fine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Enjoying every moment\u2019<\/p>\n

After a three-hour operation in November 2025 and a few days in the hospital to help his body adjust, Humberto felt back to his normal self.<\/p>\n

Morcos is confident that Humberto is unlikely to require future brain surgeries, as his MRI is clean, with no regrowth of cavernous angiomas. Humberto will require regular MRIs to monitor his brain, but is otherwise functioning as a normal 20-year-old.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Six months after his third operation, Humberto is back in school and is on track to graduate with degrees in finance and accounting in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience has definitely taught me that time flies. Every second counts,\u201d Humberto said. \u201cSomething I try to live by now is that being happy does not depend on getting everything you want. Being happy is a mindset. Enjoying every moment\u2014that\u2019s something I can control. That\u2019s what being happy is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NATSPKG:\u00a0https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1tbB01ITx1wG7Sr4VQ9LLhfvTgkAU1B5v\/view?usp=share_link SCRIPT:\u00a0https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1HYHkpysJ_uIxrbMsWnJIwraZIxTcgU_4yTa0e-_dg34\/edit?usp=sharing INTERVIEW:\u00a0https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1fHAO8Sgi7xRDzlt6k6tt9oa6-FFq8wF2\/view?usp=sharing BROLL:\u00a0https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1zpBNtcpR56ciH7esYlnEzjKMAiPTT0nB\/view?usp=sharing Newswise \u2014 When Humberto Rodriguez Lopez lay down for brain surgery in June 2021,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[112417,2244,56,58,57,35891,812,9122,36622],"class_list":["post-312003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-cavernomabrain-surgeryhoustonhondurasbrainstem-cavernomabrainstem-surgerysurgery","tag-healthcare","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-neuro","tag-newswise","tag-surgery","tag-uthealth-houston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}