A southern Utah mom hoped to spend her day celebrating her teenage son’s birthday, but an InstaCare physician assistant believed her headache and vomiting indicated something serious and advised her to postpone her plans and go to the emergency department for a scan. By evening she was receiving surgery to remove a mass from her brain.
Jessica Maggard
Jessica Maggard had a severe migraine-like headache accompanied by vomiting. Because others in her family were sick, she assumed she had a stomach bug. But the intensity of the headache and concern for dehydration caused her to seek care.
Her usual clinic was moving offices, and caregivers there advised her to go to the River Road InstaCare in St. George. Tyler D’Hulst, a physician assistant, evaluated Jessica’s symptoms and ordered lab work and an x-ray.
All the tests were negative. They gave Jessica IV fluids and medication for the nausea and vomiting, but Tyler was still concerned about her headache.
“I treated those symptoms, although I kept expressing my concern for the red flags she was mentioning — the headaches that were new for her, the worst headache she’s ever had, and the fact it’s been going on for a few days and always seems to be getting worse,” Tyler says. “I told her, ‘In the medical field those are red flags, showing there’s something more going on that needs to be addressed.’”
Tyler checked out all he could to determine what was going wrong with Jessica and then asked her what she wanted to do.
“I said, ‘I just want to go home and see my son. It’s his birthday. I want to celebrate my son’s birthday with him,’” Jessica says.
“She mentioned at the time she just didn’t have the time to go into the ER,” Tyler says. “She had too much to do getting ready for her son’s birthday party. She said she started to feel better at that time, but even then, I took the time to say, ‘I still really think this is bad. I think there’s something major going on you really need to get addressed, and the ER would be the next best place.’”
“He really was very nice and very concerned,” Jessica says. “Then I walked outside and told my husband what he said. My husband said, ‘We’re going there right now.’”
They crossed the parking lot and went to the emergency department of St. George Regional Hospital.
“They got me right in and did a CT scan,” Jessica says. “They told me, ‘Ma’am, you have a brain tumor. We have to do surgery today.’”
Jotham Manwaring, MD, a neurosurgeon, performed the surgery to remove the tumor.
“I was in surgery that night,” Jessica says. “I was so lucky they were able to get in there. Dr. Manwaring was an amazing surgeon. It was an aggressive tumor called a GBM (glioblastoma). This is one they say comes back, so that’s really the fight I have to fight hard. I’m going do the best I can because I have those three beautiful kids of mine.”
In addition to surgery, Jessica is being treated with radiation and chemotherapy. She’s grateful for the prompt and thorough care she’s received, especially in the initial diagnosis, surgical treatment, and recovery.
“I literally would walk in, and they would call my name,” Jessica says. “There wasn’t a wait anywhere I went. I felt so safe that day. Everybody was so amazing — and I mean everybody. All my nurses, all my CNAs, everyone took such good care of me. Even after surgery when I was in the ICU, they were all amazing.”
Jessica says if it wasn’t for Tyler saying, “Go to the ED and check it out,” she would have gone on her way, and she might have died.
“I want to give him a hug because he did actually look further into all those negative tests coming back and said, ‘Why does she have this really bad headache all of a sudden?’” she says.