Mayor recovers from aneurysm Elwell survives health scare, wants to get back to work
3 years ago | 109 views | 0 
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The younger Elwell, 36, who works for the family trucking business, described the series of events that led to his father going into surgery.
"On Tuesday evening, my father came home from a town council meeting with a pretty serious headache," he said. "He had been having some blurry vision in his left eye, but he didn't think much of it. He woke up Wednesday morning with the same headache and a lot less vision in his left eye, so he decided to go see the eye doctor."
After visiting an eye doctor in Jersey City, who informed the mayor that his optic nerve was flat, Mayor Elwell went to see his personal physician, Dr. Rick Pumill. The doctor did some tests and ordered an MRI. After seeing the results of the MRI, Pumill told the mayor some serious news.
"On Thursday morning, Dr. Pumill called my father and told him to get over to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan because they had found an aneurysm behind his left eye, which was pressuring his optic nerve. They performed surgery on Sunday to clip off the aneurysm. The aneurysm never burst, so the situation didn't get worse."
Aneurysms: risky health problem
An aneurysm is a localized dilation or ballooning of a blood vessel by more than 50 percent of the diameter of the vessel. Aneurysms can occur anywhere there is a blood vessel, although they are most common in arteries. These bulges in a blood vessel, similar to a bulge in an over-inflated bicycle tire, can lead to death at any time. The larger an aneurysm becomes, the more likely it is to burst. Early detection is therefore critical.
Early indications after Elwell's operation are that it was a success.
"A lot of his vision came back in his eye," Jason Elwell. "It's not 100 percent yet, but it's a lot better than it was in the weeks leading up to the surgery. It's getting better every day. One of the doctors was saying that sometimes it can take up to a year to regain full vision, but they are optimistic because he has already gotten a lot back already, which is a very good sign."
Deputy Mayor John Reilly will serve as acting mayor until Elwell, 61, can return to his regular duties. In the meantime, Elwell is eager to get back on the job.
"Initially they were telling him that he could have been home two days after the surgery, but some of the nurses said that three or four days was more likely with these types of cases," said Jason Elwell. "He's giving them a hard time at the hospital because he really wants to get home and get back to work. If I know my father, the day he gets out of the hospital, he'll be back out doing something. I don't know how we are going to stop him. I will say this: he got lucky. You know how aneurysms are. The one thing that he should do when he gets out is play the lottery."
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