From Seizure to Celebration: A Brain Tumor Survivor's Journey to Health

Lifetime Memphian and navy veteran Randy Wade and his wife Lynn were enjoying a quiet morning together when a brain tumor that neither knew about changed their lives.

On April 16, 2021, Lynn was getting ready for work and heard her husband faintly calling her name. Knowing her husband is a trickster, she thought he was up to one of his pranks. Lynn called back to him and heard no answer. So she went to check on him, and he was having a seizure. She immediately called 911.

Randy was rushed to Baptist Hospital, where SMC Neurosurgeon Dr. Aranutovic was the doctor on call. Lynn recalls meeting Dr. Aranutovic for the first time. “I was so thankful that he was the doctor on call. When he came in, he was very pleasant and funny. I just felt in my soul and spirit that he was the perfect person for this.”

It turned out that Randy had a golfball-sized benign tumor in his brain called a meningioma.

Lynn recalls. “Dr. Aranutovic asked my husband if he wanted to have chemo treatments or surgery and we opted for surgery. It was scary, but we were so confident in him. He told us exactly how things were going to go. He even called me during the surgery to let me know everything was going to be ok. Everything that he told me beforehand worked out exactly the way he said it would. He saved my husbands life.”

Lynn and Randy are now enjoying their time together. Randy has made an excellent recovery and is dreaming about what comes next. “We are travelers, so I can’t wait to go back to traveling. I love Jamaica and the Florida Keys, and I can’t wait to get back to the beach!”

At Semmes Murphey, our mission is to provide our patients with world-class brain and spine care. Our hope is that every patient can go on to live healthy, happy lives.