Paul Beatty Is Blessed; If You Don’t Believe It, Just Ask Him

He passed out while working alone at the animal shelter in Snowflake and when he came to, called emergency services. They thought it was hypothermia or dehydration; he thought it was from the flu he had the previous week.

Beatty went to two different doctors who ran multiple tests and found nothing. “One ordered an MRI and that’s when they found my tumor,” said Beatty. It was the size of a marble when they first found it and in the two months it took to schedule surgery, it had grown to the size of a walnut.

The benign tumor was behind Beatty’s eye, resting on the covering of the brain. The Feb. 20, 2012, John C. Lincoln news stated, “The tumor was growing at the base of his hypothalamus, the link between the nervous system and the endocrine system that controls automatic processes such as body temperatures.”

The neurosurgeon felt he wasn’t qualified to do the surgery and recommended Dr. Igor Yusupov, a neurosurgeon at John C. Lincoln Hospital who tried a new procedure so there wouldn’t be any more brain damage than necessary, because there was a possibility he would have effects such as personality changes or paralysis.

Beatty described the 7½-hour surgery as being “slit ear to ear, he pulled my face down, cut a hole in my forehead and went into the sinuses.” They lifted the frontal lobe, disturbed it, but didn’t have to cut into it, cut the tumor into pieces and brought it out, then cauterized the area where it had been sitting. It hadn’t sunk roots.

He had an MRI just after the surgery and one six months later on March 7, and, “They were identical, so nothing has grown back.”

Beatty went from surgery to recovery and ICU in two days. “I actually walked from ICU to my patient room,” he said. “It was the first time a patient walked out of ICU.”

He did have a problem because they punched a hole in his sinuses, causing a little leak of the brain fluid through his nose, so he went back to ICU for another week, where they put a tube up his back and drained the CFS fluid down his back.

“Once the sinus healed they released me again and I went from ICU straight home,” he said.

“My doctor said the reason he didn’t go in back of the brain (which was the traditional method) was because he didn’t want to cause much trauma, and going through the front was a way to not disturb the brain,” said Beatty.

Dr. Yusupov developed a bond with Beatty, realizing that he had family who needed him.

“My type of brain tumor people don’t even notice until it’s the size of a baseball or grapefruit, and they notice it then because they have brain damage,” said Beatty. “I was lucky because it didn’t push on any part of the brain.

“I actually was very blessed that they found it early,” he said. “So I’ve lost a little bit of sense of smell and haven’t started sweating, but I didn’t die, I didn’t stroke. They were worried about those things.”

Beatty works part-time at the Snowflake Post Office delivering mail, as well as his duties as animal control officer with the Snowflake-Taylor Police Department.

“I’m so appreciative of the employees at the police department and the post office, and my community and church. I can’t say enough about John C. Lincoln and the ICU nurses. They were so good to me, attended to my every need. I don’t think my doctor took a day off, he was there every day,” he recalled.

Beatty said the nurses couldn’t believe the neurosurgeon came every day, because usually they assign their nurse practitioner or a nurse to some of the care, but Dr. Yusupov was there every day.

He also expressed appreciation to members of his church who helped his 18 year old care for the other seven children who are still at home. Beatty has 12 children and three grandchildren, and is very grateful to be able to be there as they grow up.

Beatty was back to work as of March 11, and said he was a little tired at the end of the day, but was feeling very blessed.