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Northville Family Promotes Awareness of Health Problem that Killed its Mother

The Demmer family is working to make September National Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month.

September brought epic weather, global financial worries and numerous other notable events before it passed into history’s annals. But a development out of Washington, D.C., on Sept. 23 made one local family very happy.

The U.S. Senate passed Resolution 248, recognizing September as National Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month. The original request sprang from a grassroots petition effort and lobbying by the Brain Aneurysm Foundation in Boston, but one of the main supporters was the Demmer family of Northville and Plymouth, which owns the in Dearborn.

Now, the measure moves to the House of Representatives.

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For the Demmer family, it represents a step forward in having a serious health problem recognized and, hopefully, prevented.

Since the November 2007 death of Shirley Demmer, her husband Bill and other family members have worked to educate others on the dangers and possibilities of that same fate.

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“This occurs in one out of 50 people,” said Jackie Demmer, Shirley’s 24-year-old daughter, adding that an estimated 6 million people have an unruptured aneurysm and half the victims are under the age of 50. “Most have never had a symptom or a rupture, but those odds really show how many can be potential victims.”

Aneurysms are balloon-like bulges that appear in arteries. Since arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood to the body, such anomalies can occur in various organs. But the ones in the head are especially deadly, killing people like Shirley Demmer, who was just 54 and in the midst of preparing dinner for her family when she collapsed in her home and died.

What the Demmers did not know was that Shirley probably inherited the condition. Genetics play a large part in what causes aneurysms.

“My grandmother, Genevieve Dudek, died in 1966 following complications after a hysterectomy,” said Jackie, who lives in Plymouth, and also works in marketing and business development for the auto dealership. “Mom (Shirley) was just 13 when her mom died, and no one really looked at my grandmother’s death details until Dad started doing family research after Mom died. That’s when we discovered how susceptible we are and that aneurysms run in families.”

Bill Demmer, 58 and a Northville resident, took his dedicated investigation even further. He is now on the national board of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, and worked to have petition signatures gathered and presented to draft the proposal for recognition.

But as Demmer and others seek to spread awareness of the devastation of aneurysms, some Michigan legislators are looking to cap medical care and rehabilitation benefits for people who survive aneurysms and other catastrophic health issues.

Introduced in mid-September by Rep. Pete Lund (R-Shelby Township), HB 4936 would set a cap of $250,000–rather than allow lifetime benefits–for care and rehabilitation of catastrophic illness. The bill is largely supported by Republican state legislators.

But some believe the cap could be financially crippling to survivors of aneurysms.

“Aneurysms are genetic, but they can also be caused by accidents,” said Livonia’s Rainbow Rehabilitation Center Marketing Director Susan Zaitouch. “Passage of such a bill will cripple any long-term or repeated ability to provide services for the people who need them, including any returning soldiers injured in the line of duty, many of whom have brain injuries.”

Raising awareness of aneurysms is key to ensuring sufferers of them have support.

The Demmers helped to gain 3,200 online petition signatures and another 6,400 sending letters to their Congressional reps. And they still seek more input from the public to make September the official Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month.

“It’s so important to raise public awareness, (and) to make September the official month to do that,” said Jackie Demmer. “This means helping those at risk as well as all those without symptoms that could be devastated by this danger.”

To join the petition cause, click on http://bafound.rallycongress.com/4997/urge-vice-president-joe-biden-to-publicly-support-brain-aneurysm/   

For more information on aneurysms and the national organization, go to www.bafound.org.

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