Eagles' Patterson 'blessed' to be playing again after brain surgery

BIANCA PATTERSON told herself not to panic. She had just received word that her husband, Eagles defensive tackle Mike Patterson, had collapsed with a seizure on the practice field during a training-camp session at Lehigh University in 2011. No one could give her any more information, except that he was undergoing tests at Lehigh Valley Hospital. But Bianca remained calm as she drove there from Cherry Hill, N.J. And she prayed.

She wondered what it could have been. Nothing had ever happened like this before. In fact, he had been a very durable player since the Eagles had selected him out of USC in the first round of the 2005 draft. Although it was not an unbearably hot day - the temperature was in the upper 70s - Bianca wondered whether her husband had suffered heat stroke. But she told herself, "Keep your head straight, so you can ask the questions that have to be answered."

She found her husband alert and in good spirits when she arrived at the hospital. Patterson assured her, "Everything is fine." While his recollections of events were unclear - he would remember later that he "came to" in the ambulance - he told Bianca that he had just finished a team run and was talking with defensive-line coach Jim Washburn and defensive end Trent Cole when he blacked out. Daily News beat writer Les Bowen reported that Patterson "flopped to the ground, on his back, and began convulsing. Patterson's arms flew up from his sides." Patterson was tended to by trainer Rick Burkholder and his staff. Burkholder estimated that the seizure lasted 4 minutes.

Thus began an unsettling journey for Patterson. Doctors diagnosed him with cerebral arteriovenous malformation, which is an abnormal collection of blood vessels on or in the brain. Given clearance to play last year by doctors - which he did in 15 of 16 games - Patterson underwent surgery in January to remove the AVM. While the prognosis had been that he would be healed by training camp, he did not play until the New Orleans game 2 weeks ago. No one word could describe the emotion that overcame him when he stepped back on the field.

"Ecstatic? Excited? Thrilled? Blessed?" says Patterson. "I am just so happy to be able to continue to play. Luckily, none of the doctors I saw at any point said that my career was in jeopardy. No one said, 'Football is no longer a part of your future.' I remember thinking: As long as no one says those words, I will be able to get through this."

Four doctors gave him the go-ahead to play last year even with AVM, a condition that develops in the womb but does not reveal itself until young adulthood. Patterson says, "If I was able to play, I wanted to be out there." Doctors gave him an anti-seizure medication. Bianca adds that the doctors were "very positive in their opinion that he could play." According to Bianca, tests were performed on her husband to assess the strength of the "walls of his blood vessels." Patterson says he was told it was unlikely he would experience any internal bleeding, which could have had grave consequences. Bianca says she was "supportive and OK" when Patterson chose to play last season. But that was not the case with Florence Patterson, his worried mother back in Sacramento, Calif.

"Well, yes, I was very surprised," Florence says with a chuckle. "When he said he was going back to play last year, I said, 'What are you talking about?' He kept saying, 'I'll be OK, I'll be OK.' But I was, like, 'I don't know.' I really wanted to call Andy Reid myself."

Doctors told Patterson he did not have to have the surgery immediately. In fact, he could hold off until he retired from football. But Patterson says, "I wanted to get it done, so there would never be any question that I could play football." On Jan. 22, Dr. Robert Spetzler performed the operation in Phoenix. Patterson understands that Spetzler does four surgeries a day, and that the doctor affected an air of casualness. He told Patterson he would "go to sleep, wake up and be fine." Spetzler cut open a square above the right eye to get at the AVM, and left Patterson with an 8-inch scar. Although it was a 6-hour procedure, both Bianca and Florence agreed that it seemed far longer.

"Whenever your husband is going to have surgery on a vital organ like the brain, you do get apprehensive," says Bianca. "All you can do is pray and look at the clock."

Florence adds: "It was tense and scary. Me and Bianca were pacing. We were praying. Neither of us could eat. It seemed like we were sitting there for days, not hours. No was coming out and letting us know anything."

Eventually, someone did. Patterson came through the surgery without complications. The AVM had been removed. When he later regained consciousness in the recovery room, Patterson asked, "What just happened?" Patterson says now, "My head was so swollen, I looked like Igor." Patterson says he had wanted to see a video of the surgery - an unusual request, yet, as Bianca adds, "That sounds like him." But Patterson was told that no video existed and that the AVM that had been extracted from him had been disposed of. Patterson says, "When I asked them, 'Where did the AVM go?' they just said, 'Oh, we got rid of that.' "

He was up and around within a few days. Doctors told him he would be healed by July, just in time for the opening of training camp. Within 4 weeks or so, he was back working out. Although he could not immediately lift weights, he was able to run and do cardiovascular exercises. By early July, the tissue at the site of the incision had healed. But Spetzler still did not give him clearance to play. So Patterson called him and said, "What happened, doc? You told me it would be 6 months."

Spetzler explained. "The concern is not the tissue," he told Patterson. "The tissue has healed. But the concern is the bone, because the area where we did the incision is so thin. I want to guarantee [the bone] stays in place before you put a helmet on again."

Weeks passed.

And the season began. Spetzler finally cleared him to play in Week 8 against New Orleans. Patterson was greeted on the field by Broderick Bunkley, the former Eagles defensive tackle, and Sedrick Ellis, another defensive tackle who is an old friend from USC. "Nice to see you back," they both told him. Because he had been away for so long, Patterson found the speed of the game to be a challenge. But he soon settled into the rhythm of play. Bianca says that seeing him out there "was a triumphant moment."

"I flashed back to everything he had been through," says Bianca. "All the things he had to conquer and overcome. It was a beautiful moment for me to see how far he has come. I was so proud of him. He showed such resiliency."

Florence adds, "I always worry. Mothers always do."

Both Patterson and Bianca agreed that it could have been worse. Patterson asks: "What if the AVM had been in an interior region of the brain? Or what if there had been a bleed?" Bianca wonders what would have happened if her husband had had his seizure somewhere else other than the practice field - say, behind the wheel of his car. Bianca says, "So I am just happy that he was surrounded by trainers who knew exactly what to do."

So, did the experience give Patterson a new perspective on life? Did it change him in any way?

The big defensive tackle smiles.

"No," he says. "But I do feel thankful. And blessed."

Email: kramm@phillynews.com