Posted by Divya Sathyanarayanan

Jeong Kim maintained a healthy lifestyle and always passed his routine health check-ups with flying colors. It all started with a sudden headache in 2018, which continued to worsen with each passing day. Kim thought the headaches were occurring due to stress and exertion and continued to ignore it. But the headache persisted for 5 months and new symptoms such as neck pain developed. “Something was definitely wrong,” he said to himself.

Kim met his PCP who recommended an MRI and also referred him to an oncologist. Seeing the MRI results, the oncologist advised him to immediately visit the emergency department at CHA HPMC as the MRI showed a massive tangerine-sized tumor in his right brain.

“When I reached the emergency room at Hollywood Presbyterian, Dr. Joung Lee and his team were already prepared to perform an emergency surgery,” recalls Kim. While being wheeled to the surgery, Kim recalls, Dr. Lee assured him that “everything was fine”. “He even told me that I will be walking home in three days,” remembers Kim. These words of assurance instilled confidence in Kim, who had never undergone a complex surgery. “Since the brain is involved, I was very worried about the surgery. But I had faith in Dr. Lee and his team,” he says.

Like Dr. Lee assured, Kim was discharged from our hospital within three days of his surgery. “I could not believe that I was actually able to climb stairs to my apartment without any assistance,” Kim vividly remembers.

Even today, Kim remembers the unforgettable day of surgery. “The tumor could’ve been fatal, if not operated at the right time,” he says.

Kim is thankful to Dr. Lee and the team at CHA HPMC for the complete resection of the tumor and getting him back to his normal life once again. “Dr. Lee is best at what he does and I can’t thank him enough,” he says.

 
 
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