Ten years ago, Lewis Neyland began to experience periodic vision loss and numbness in his left arm, hand and face. A massive stroke led to complete loss of vision in his left eye. Because the blocked artery causing these strokes was in his brain, the son of UT Vols coaching legend, General Robert Neyland, was told, “It’s too risky to operate.”

Medications didn’t help and the frequency of his mini-strokes created a walking time bomb situation for him and his wife, Libby.

Last fall the Neylands were contacted by local neurologist, Dr. Thomas Devlin, about a new procedure at Erlanger that employs a stent to unclog brain arteries.

On November 30, 2005, Dr. Blaise Baxter, an interventional radiologist at Erlanger, along with Dr. Devlin, performed the new stent procedure on Mr. Neyland. A few weeks later, during a press conference at Erlanger, a grateful Lewis Neyland reported that his stroke symptoms had disappeared, his blood pressure had moderated, and that he had been given a new lease on life.

Dr. Devlin says, “The success we had with Mr. Neyland speaks to the fact that we have a hospital – Erlanger – with a very collegiate team of specialists from many disciplines – working together to build a world-renowned stroke treatment program.”