Neuro reunion shows off progress

They were brought together by some of the worst moments of their lives – but you’d never know, if you witnessed the hugs and snapshots and, yes, laughter, at the first-ever reunion of patients from UW Hospital’s Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit.

For former UW hockey star Kirk Daubenspeck, it was the February 2011 crash that sheared his car apart when it hit a semi stretched across both lanes of a foggy Highway 18-151.

For Blanchardville dairy farmer Gary Gruenenfelder, it was the night in November 2010 that he suddenly fell down, as if dead, in his own bedroom from a grade 5 aneurysm, the worst kind.

And for Shauna Gooch of rural Juneau, it was the afternoon in August 2010 when her head hurt so bad she couldn’t even dial 911.

By helicopter and ambulance, they arrived at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics and, after treatment that included brain surgery for some, began their long roads to recovery in the “neuro ICU.”

They returned to the hospital on a sunny summer Saturday, to show off their progress, their new grandchildren and their newly grown hair. Myron Wisnewski of Mosinee, and Nicole Miller of Monona, felt each other’s bumpy skulls, the result of shunts put in after their brain surgery.

“I call it my ‘mound system and drain field,’” Wisnewski quipped.

Meanwhile, charge nurse Laura Potamousis kidded the patients that no one remembered her, adding, “No one remembers much from their time up there.”

Several patients did remember another nurse, Michael Garske, for his sense of humor – and the fact that he would hum “You’re in the Army Now,” while giving patients their buzz cuts.

Dr. Josh Medow, a neurosurgeon and director of neurocritical care, conceived of the event, and invited ICU surgeons and housekeepers, therapists and nurses. He told the patients and their families that they gave the hospital staff a wonderful gift by returning for the reunion.

“You are the humanity of what we do here everyday,” Medow said. “To have seen you with every manner of wires and tubing coming out of your bodies, and then to see how well you are doing today, fills me with ‘naches,’ the Jewish word for pride.”

Dr. Robert Dempsey, chairman of neurosurgery, agreed.

“Brain tumors, aneurysm, degenerative diseases and traumatic brain injuries are all horrible conditions that can be conquered only if we are never, ever satisfied with our current level of care,” Dempsey said. “It’s the patients and their families, right down to the grandchildren we’re meeting today, who give us the energy to do what we do every day.”

One of those showing off his first grandbaby was Wisnewski, who brought along baby Raelynn Rusch and a large extended clan from the Wausau area. The family made a weekend of it by camping together at Governor Dodge State Park.

“You can’t put a price on having him here,” said his daughter, Sasha Wisnewski, who, when she marries later this year, will become the third child married after her father suffered an aneurysm in 2009.

Priscilla Picard of Brodhead, was one of several patients who posed for pictures with neurosurgeon Dr. Mustafa Baskaya.

“He’s SO beautiful,” she said, emphasizing every word.

And she wasn’t the only one star-struck. Daubenspeck, who played pro hockey and was an All-American for the Badgers, called the neuro ICU “the best team I ever played for.” He came to the event with wife, Peggy; son Axel, 2; and baby Elsa, who was born as Daubenspeck was recovering last October.

Daubenspeck said he appreciated the fact that the ICU nurses let all his hockey teammates crowd into the room during his long recovery, and even let them blast Grateful Dead tunes. He remembers hearing the song, “He’s Gone,” but unlike the lyrics, he did make it back to his wife and children, which he called “by far my greatest accomplishment.”

Possibly the best summary came from Brenda Schmittinger, a Janesville woman who suffered an aneurysm.

“Everyone here has a story,” she said. “Listen to it. It’s wonderful how far we’ve come.”