NATASHA

Natasha has lived in Lakeland most of her life. In the Summer of 1997 she became ill while taking her children to their daycare and passed out on the floor. She was taken to the hospital where they diagnosed her as having an anxiety attack and gave her anti-anxiety Medications.

She continued to have difficulties, however, and knew that anxiety was not the underlying medical problem. Other members of her family had experienced aneurysms of the brain, and she was very afraid she might have one, too.

Natasha"s husband could not afford the health insurance his employer offered, so they became uninsured. Natasha has three children, ages 17, 10, and 8, and then became pregnant again in 2001. In the Summer of 2002 Natasha and her husband were happy to have twin girls, Victoria and Veronica. The twins are healthy, happy and normal, but Natasha continued to have serious neurological symptoms.

Since they were uninsured, Natasha came to LVIM. Dr. Steven Flax saw her first and felt that anxiety was not the real problem, so he sent her for tests at Lakeland MRI. Lakeland MRI took her without charge because she was an LVIM patient.

They found she had a benign tumor in her brain. Natasha has strong Christian faith which has sustained her. She says, " I have learned to always trust in God. When this all occurred, my natural thing to do was pray and give it to God, and this is what I did. I was referred to LVIM and feel this was the beginning of the answers to my prayers. All the people here are so wonderful. They are all volunteers donating their time to help people in need. To me personally, that takes a very Godly heart!"

Natasha had brain surgery in early 2003 and came through it with flying colors. Her tumor was not cancerous, and she continues to follow up at LVIM.