07/29/2025
Just days before her 33rd birthday, Alex’s life changed in an instant.
Alex was riding an electric scooter through her neighborhood on an Autumn night when a small stone in her path changed everything. Traveling at 25 mph, she lost control, fell hard and struck her head on the pavement with force. The impact was severe — she lost consciousness immediately. Her fiancé called 911 and after being rushed to a nearby hospital, Alex was flown by Life Flight to Mercy Health — St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio.
She arrived in a deep coma. CT scans revealed a fractured skull, bleeding in the brain and intense swelling that had her teetering on the edge of brain death. “She was as close as you can be,” said Dr. Sean Xin, the neurosurgeon on call. “I’ve treated hundreds of traumatic brain injuries over the last 14 years — this was one of the worst I’ve ever seen.”
Faced with minutes to act, Dr. Xin performed an emergency craniotomy to open the skull and stop the bleeding and relieve the pressure on the brain. The team quickly evacuated the blood clot and controlled the bleeding, but the brain continued swelling.
Dr. Xin made a swift decision to use a cutting-edge procedure called a cisternostomy — an advanced technique that only a handful of surgeons in the U.S. currently perform. Unlike traditional treatment, which often requires removing part of the skull for months, this technique relieved the pressure inside Alex’s brain immediately. This breakthrough technique allowed the bone to be plated back on the skull at the same time, without the need for a second operation.
The result? Nothing short of extraordinary. She spent three weeks in a coma. Her memories don’t begin until nearly a month later. “I woke up crying because I just wanted to be home for Thanksgiving,” she recalled. “Everyone else knew how close I came to dying — except me.”
But waking up was just the beginning. Recovery wasn’t easy. She battled dizziness and nausea and learned how to eat again after weeks with a feeding tube. Six weeks after the accident that nearly ended her life, Alex returned home. Within three months, she was back at her full-time job in child protective services — a role that demands a high level of emotional intelligence, focus and empathy. “It’s incredible that she was able to recover with such a high level of function so quickly after surviving such severe traumatic brain injury — I’ve never seen anything like this in my experience,” shares Dr. Xin.
“I feel like I have unfinished business,” she said. “I have two little boys — I’m here for them.”
For Dr. Xin, who began performing cisternostomies in 2020, Alex’s case isn’t just remarkable — it’s groundbreaking. “Her recovery exceeded every expectation. This is why we do what we do,” he said. “This technique has the power to transform how we treat traumatic brain injuries.”
Dr. Xin isn’t stopping with Alex. He’s on a mission to share his knowledge — to teach other neurosurgeons how to perform cisternostomies, so that more patients can have outcomes just like hers.
Alex still bears the scars — and the gratitude. “I sold the scooters,” she admitted. “It’s humbling to almost die. I am extremely grateful.”
