Columbus Student and Cross County Star Suffers Massive Brain Bleed, Makes Full Recovery at Jackson
By: Krysten Brenlla
When Matthew Nunez was a freshman at Christopher Columbus Senior High School, he followed his older brother’s footsteps by joining the track and cross-country teams.
For years, the now 18-year-old competed in countless races without any issues. As his senior year approached, Matthew was preparing to run at the collegiate level, backed by his family, friends, and teammates.
“It was really a normal day, a typical race day on a Friday afternoon,” said Matthew’s parents, Anna and Carlos Nunez. “In fact, he was pumped up for the race and ready for it. He had absolutely zero signs of anything.”
On Friday, September 27, 2024, less than half a mile into the race, Matthew started to feel sharp pain on the right side of his head that spread down to his jaw.
“The pain got so bad that I had to turn myself around and walk toward the golf cart that follows the runners,” Matthew said.
At first, the race paramedics thought it was dehydration or heat exhaustion. However, as they started to examine him, they knew something else was wrong.
“I usually wait for him at the two-mile mark, but I noticed that Matthew wasn’t coming,” Anna said. “People began calling me, telling me, ‘Something happened, you have to get back to the rescue at the finish line.’”
Matthew was rushed to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson South, where a team led by Antonio Marttos, MD, a UHealth – University of Miami Health System trauma surgeon at Ryder Trauma, worked to stabilize and assess him.
“When he arrived at Jackson South, he was in critical condition,” Dr. Marttos said. “What concerned us most was that he was not moving his right side properly. We quickly sent him in for a CT scan to evaluate for a possible brain bleed, but within minutes, at the CT scanner, his heart and lungs began to fail.”
The multidisciplinary care team acted quickly and intubated Matthew, placing him on a ventilator to help him breathe and giving him life-saving medication to help his heart keep adequate blood pressure and blood flow to the brain.
When the CT scan was finally performed, a massive brain bleed was found.
“I was in the chapel at Jackson South when Dr. Marttos gave me the news. It was just utter shock,” Anna said. “So many thoughts started popping into my head. But, Dr. Marttos and his team gave us the confidence we needed, and I knew that they would do everything they could to help our son.”
To control the bleed, Matthew underwent emergency neurosurgery, which lowered the pressure on his brain that was triggering multi-organ failure. Once resuscitated, he was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial.
At Jackson Memorial, a specialized team of neurosurgeons was ready to take over and address the source of Matthew’s bleeding.
“The initial step was ensuring his heart and lungs were resuscitated,” said Adib Abla, MD, chief of cranial neurosurgery at Jackson Memorial. “Ultimately, we found the cause of bleeding in the brain was a vascular lesion located in the brainstem, which is an abnormality in the brain’s blood vessels that can burst, resulting in a dangerous brain bleed.”
On October 4, Dr. Abla and his team performed a successful surgery that removed the entire lesion.
After surgery, Matthew spent 26 days in the intensive care unit, and 11 days at Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth/Jackson Memorial.
“Everybody here made those days as smooth and comfortable as could be considering the situation – they made us feel at home,” Carlos said. “I knew that Matthew was going to be okay because he was in the best place possible to recover from this. It is an absolute miracle.”
Today, Matthew has made a full recovery, and has returned to what he loves the most – running. He’s looking forward to finishing his senior year, and hopes to continue his running career in college.
“To the entire team at Jackson, there are no words that can truly express my gratitude,’” he said. “They saved my life.”