Meghan Russell’s eyesight had never been tack sharp. But when a vision test at the BMV revealed it was getting even worse, she sought answers. She assumed that her eyes were just aging like she was. But, because of donor gifts, she discovered the truth that saved her sight.

“I scraped by with the left eye being 20-40, but my right eye was 20-400,” she says. “I didn’t know that was possible! I stopped driving because of how bad it got.”

After the eye doctors’ tests and procedures yielded no results, she continued searching. She ended up at Mercy Health — St. Vincent’s Medical Center’s new Mercy Health Neuroscience Institute. There, an MRI finally revealed the cause. Meghan had a brain tumor the size of an orange. It was putting pressure on her optic nerve and effecting her vision.

Because donors support the world-class institute, doctors were able to successfully remove the benign tumor after 13 hours of surgery.

“It was a challenge, and I knew it was going to be a tough case,” says her surgeon Dr. Sean Xin. “She was blind from the tumor, and I knew that we could get her vision back, and I was excited for that outcome.”

As Dr. Xin predicted, almost immediately after surgery, Meghan could read the wall clock in her hospital room. She’s back to doing things like reading and studying continued education so she can return to her old career.

She is grateful that donations made this life-changing care possible for her.

“I encountered so many wonderful people who were there for me day and night,” she says. “I’m eternally grateful to everyone!”