Health
Woman’s life is saved when full-body scan detects deadly condition with no symptoms
As some doctors say, “If you look, you will find.”
In August 2023, Mary Ann Waldron, a healthy Arizona woman, decided to undergo an elective MRI full-body scan at a SimonMed Imaging facility, never expecting to find anything serious.
She was shocked when the scan detected a large aneurysm in her pancreas area, ultimately saving her life.
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Today, a strong proponent of full-body scans as a preventative measure, Waldron is eager to share her story as a cautionary tale for others.
“I believe we each need to take responsibility for our health,” she told Fox News Digital. “I’m more than 70 years old, and despite being asymptomatic, I wanted to learn if I had any early-stage cancers.”
Mary Ann Waldron, 73, pictured with her husband, had a life-saving MRI that detected a potentially deadly aneurysm. (Mary Ann Waldron)
Dr. Brett Osborn, a Florida neurologist and longevity expert, also recognizes the benefits of full-body MRI scans.
“Full-body scanning, mainly through MRI, presents a significant advancement in modern medicine’s diagnostic capabilities,” he told Fox News Digital. (He was not involved in Waldron’s care.)
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“MRI technology allows for a comprehensive, noninvasive examination of the body to detect a wide range of conditions, including cancer and vascular malformations like aneurysms, without the need for potentially harmful X-rays, as is the case with CT scans.”
Life-saving discovery
The results of Waldron’s scan indicated that there “may be an aneurysm.” A follow-up CT scan of her abdomen and pancreas was then recommended.
“If in fact I had an aneurysm, then this was life-threatening, as death is imminent when an aneurysm bursts, unless the person is already in an operating suite,” said Waldron.
“Full-body scanning, mainly through MRI, presents a significant advancement in modern medicine’s diagnostic capabilities,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. (SimonMed)
Dr. Barry Sadegi, SimonMed’s chief medical officer in Scottsdale, Arizona, emphasized the danger of Waldron’s condition.
“Pancreaticoduodenal artery aneurysms are extremely rare, representing only 2% of all splanchnic (abdominal organ) aneurysms,” he told Fox News Digital.
“The majority (64%) of patients who seek treatment present after the aneurysm has ruptured.”
Aneurysm rupture can be life-threatening, Sadegi confirmed, as it results in abdominal bleeding.
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In many cases, there are no symptoms of an aneurysm, which was the case for Waldron.
“And because I had no prior imaging studies of this area for comparison, there was no way to know how long this aneurysm had been present or for how much longer it would exist before bursting,” she added.
Once doctors confirmed that Waldron had an aneurysm, she was referred to a vascular surgeon, who determined that she would need immediate surgery.
Because the MRI scans don’t use ionizing radiation, the test itself is safe, said Sadegi of SimonMed, although the test does have some indirect risks and limitations. (iStock)
“We scheduled the procedure and were advised to drive from Sedona to Chicago, as the risk of flying with changes in pressure was dangerous,” she said. “The size and location of my aneurysm was unusually large and uncommon.”
Waldron underwent an angiogram of the mesenteric artery (a major artery of the abdomen). The surgeon performed an embolization of the aneurysm, placing several titanium wires to block the artery and close off the sac of the aneurysm, preventing further blood flow and bursting.
Today, Waldron is feeling healthy and is back to her regular routines.
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“It is now necessary for me to take daily blood thinners, which make me susceptible to bruising, but other than that I am feeling well,” she told Fox News Digital.
“I have resumed my usual activities of golf, swimming and walking.”
Waldron will continue to see her doctor every six months for the next couple of years for ultrasounds of the stented area.
The SimonONE scan (pictured) scans the entire body for warning signs of disease without using ionizing radiation. (SimonMed)
“This was a truly life-saving surgery,” she said.
“Generally, early detection enables early intervention, which provides the best opportunity for successful resolution. In my case, the detection was not early in the formation of the aneurysm, but was early enough to correct it.”
She added, “I believe these scans can detect abnormalities at an early stage, helping us prolong our lives — and certainly the quality of our lives.”
Focus on preventative health care
The majority of the U.S. health care system is reactive rather than proactive, Sadegi stated — “more focused on treating illness after it develops rather than preventing it.”
The scan, he said, is a means of empowering patients who want to take an active role in their disease prevention.
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“Although the American College of Radiology does not currently recommend MRI whole-body screening for the general population, many SimonONE patients have similar stories in which the scan resulted in very positive health outcomes,” he said.
“Because there can be false positives, one may argue that there is unnecessary expense in the whole-body scan and unnecessary radiation in the follow-up studies that confirm there are no issues,” Waldron, pictured, told Fox News Digital. (Mary Ann Waldron)
Some of the conditions that SimonMed’s scans have discovered have included other aneurysms, severe arterial stenoses in the neck and head, and masses in the brain, pituitary gland, neck, thyroid, mediastinum, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys, lymph nodes, bladder, endometrium and prostate gland, said Sadegi.
Potential risks and limitations
Because the MRI scans don’t use ionizing radiation, Sadegi said the test itself is low-risk.
There is the risk of overdiagnosis, however, as Osborn noted.
“This is where benign conditions are detected and treated unnecessarily, leading to undue stress, further testing, and potentially unnecessary interventions and their inevitable complications,” he told Fox News Digital.
Today, Waldron is feeling healthy and is back to her regular routines. “This was a truly life-saving surgery,” she said. (Mary Ann Waldron / iStock)
“These studies are imperfect,” he told Fox News Digital. “Is the patient ready to deal with a positive finding? Often, it’s unclear whether a lesion is benign or malignant. And then what? Are these studies worth the ‘risk’ at this point?”
He added, “I defer to my patients and allow them to make an informed decision. To me, however, the benefits far outweigh the risks.”
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In Waldron’s case, she was OK with the risks.
“Because there can be false positives, one may argue that there is unnecessary expense in the whole-body scan and unnecessary radiation in the follow-up studies that confirm there are no issues,” she said.
“I defer to my patients and allow them to make an informed decision. To me, however, the benefits far outweigh the risks.”
“But this, in my opinion, is a minor trade-off for the peace of mind one achieves either knowing all is well or knowing what needs to be addressed.”
This type of scan also has some limitations.
It does not screen for blood-borne tumors, such as leukemia, or for skin tumors, such as melanoma or basal cell carcinoma, according to Sadegi. It also might not detect smaller nodules in the lungs.
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The scan is also not ideal for detecting musculoskeletal conditions involving bones or joints.
Sadegi said it cannot replace colonoscopies for colon or rectal screenings; and mammography and MRI of the breasts are more sensitive for breast cancer.
Barriers to care
Right now, given the associated costs, most insurance carriers do not cover a full-body MRI, Osborn pointed out.
“These scans can detect abnormalities at an early stage, helping us prolong our lives and certainly the quality of our lives,” said one patient. (iStock)
“The numbers don’t make sense to them,” he said. “It’s simply a matter of dollars and cents. Many scans, at significant cost, would have to be performed to save one life … This is the ‘business’ of medicine and one of the main reasons why, historically speaking, insurance companies have not embraced preventive care.”
That could change in the future, he said.
“As consumer interest in preventive care soars — and people want to live longer, healthier lives — it may be the driver of change.”
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A common over-the-counter medication combined with a home exercise program could help ease cognitive issues for cancer patients.
That’s according to a study from the University of Rochester, which tested the effects of physical activity and low-dose ibuprofen on patients receiving chemotherapy treatment.
“Chemo brain” (also called chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment, or CRCI) is a known side effect of cancer treatment that can affect memory, concentration and multitasking ability. Up to 80% of people who receive chemo experience some degree of cognitive impairment, previous studies have shown.
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Rochester’s phase 2 trial studied 86 adult cancer patients in New York undergoing chemotherapy who were experiencing cognitive problems. The average age was 53 and nearly 89% of participants were women, according to a university press release.
Participants who took only ibuprofen also showed greater cognitive improvements than the placebo group. (IStock)
Patients were randomly assigned to one of four groups. One group participated in home exercise designed specifically for cancer patients, a second group combined the exercises with ibuprofen (200 milligrams, or one pill, twice a day), the third group took ibuprofen alone and a fourth took a placebo alone.
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The exercise program consisted of low to moderate-intensity activity, including progressive walking and training with resistance bands.
“This is one of the first studies specifically designed to assess these interventions for cancer-related cognitive impairment during chemotherapy in patients with multiple diseases using both performance-based cognitive assessments and patient-reported outcomes,” said lead author Michelle C. Janelsins, Ph.D., MPH, of the University of Rochester and the Wilmot Cancer Institute, in the press release.
Up to 80% of people who receive chemo experience some degree of cognitive impairment.
After six weeks, exercise was linked to the clearest improvements in attention and cognitive function, according to input from family and friends. Those in the group who combined exercise and placebo showed better attention levels compared to those who took just a placebo.
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Participants who took only ibuprofen also showed greater cognitive improvements than the placebo group.
The findings suggest that ibuprofen may provide some improvement in cognitive function, although the benefits appeared to be smaller and less consistent than those seen with exercise.
“Chemo brain” (also called chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment, or CRCI) is a known side effect of cancer treatment that can affect memory, concentration and multitasking ability. (iStock)
This suggests that inflammation may contribute to cancer-related cognitive impairment, and that anti-inflammatory medications could be an effective therapeutic approach.
“We are encouraged by the findings of this trial that suggest possible benefits of both interventions for some cognitive domains,” Janelsins said. “Clearly, we saw a more pronounced effect with exercise, which is notable considering the multiple health benefits of exercise for cancer survivors.”
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No adverse side effects were reported during the trial.
The findings were published in Cancer, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
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There were some limitations of the study, the researchers noted, including the small sample size and short duration. The effects were also not consistent across every measure of cognitive function.
As the majority of participants were women, the findings may not be generalized to broader populations.
“Clearly, we saw a more pronounced effect with exercise, which is notable considering the multiple health benefits of exercise for cancer survivors,” the researcher said. (iStock)
Researchers are planning larger phase 3 trials to confirm whether ibuprofen and exercise can effectively improve chemo-related cognitive impairment.
“Since we saw cognitive benefits in some domains and not others, we will also consider additional doses and longer durations in future research trials,” said Janelsins.
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Investigators emphasized that patients should speak with their oncology team before starting ibuprofen or exercise interventions during chemotherapy, as certain treatments or medical conditions could increase the risk of side effects and complications.
U.S. health officials are monitoring 16 additional people across the country for symptoms of hantavirus whom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not previously mentioned, the agency said on Thursday.
The new people the C.D.C. reported were not on the cruise ship but were passengers on an April 25 flight to Johannesburg and exposed to someone known to have been infected, said Dr. David Fitter, who is leading the C.D.C.’s response to the outbreak.
The new total of those being monitored in the United States is 41, a significant increase over the 18 passengers from the Dutch cruise ship who were brought back to the United States on Monday. They are quarantining at special facilities in Omaha and Atlanta.
Seven other passengers from the cruise ship had disembarked on April 24 in St. Helena, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, returned to the United States on commercial flights and are being monitored by state health departments.
As of Thursday, there were no confirmed cases in the United States, Dr. Fitter said.
The infected passenger was a 69-year-old Dutch woman whose husband was the first person to die in the outbreak, on April 11. She was among those who disembarked from the ship on April 24. The next day, she flew from St. Helena to Johannesburg. She collapsed shortly after arrival and died on April 26. She was confirmed on May 4 to have had hantavirus.
C.D.C. officials would not give any other information about the 16 passengers, including where they had gone once they reached the United States.
It was not clear whether all Americans exposed to the virus are now back in the country, or whether there are additional people being monitored abroad.
“Our job is to ensure that we are monitoring and in contact with anybody that might have been on the flight this person had taken,” Dr. Fitter told reporters. The agency is “monitoring all Americans that potentially would have been exposed, whether in the U.S. or abroad, and we have been in contact with them,” he said.
In an interview on Sunday with CNN, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the C.D.C.’s acting director, said none of the seven passengers who returned to the United States earlier had symptoms at the time of their travel, so officials had not seen a need to alert the public or trace contacts.
For the moment, quarantine is essentially voluntary. Officials are encouraging those who were exposed to the virus to “stay at home and avoid being around people during their 42-day monitoring period,” Dr. Fitter said.
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Concerns about rising hantavirus cases has Americans reflecting on the coronavirus pandemic.
Although COVID-19 began with a foreign strain and spread rapidly around the world, experts say it’s not likely that hantavirus will behave the same way.
The rare Andes virus, which was linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, is the only known hantavirus strain that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact.
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Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel spoke with Fox News Digital about the similarities and differences between hantavirus and coronavirus, noting that there is “no comparison.”
“You could say the comparison ends at that they’re both single-stranded RNA viruses,” he said. “That’s a comparison, but [hantavirus] has been unchanged basically for decades.”
Dr. Marc Siegel says there’s “no comparison between these two viruses, other than that the single-stranded RNA viruses are both carried by animals.” (iStock)
Coronavirus was different because it began to mutate, which started to cause “all kinds of problems,” Siegel noted.
“We don’t know why it started to mutate, but this one doesn’t appear to have done that,” he said. “And every day that goes by seems to show that theory is correct – the genetics of it is the same.”
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“So, there’s no comparison between these two viruses, other than that the single-stranded RNA viruses are both carried by animals.”
Siegel added that COVID is an airborne virus, while hantavirus is mainly a secretion-borne virus, although it can be transmitted through dust and droppings in the air.
The rare Andes virus, which was linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, is the only known hantavirus strain that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact. (Andres Gutierrez/Anadolu)
“It’s not airborne … in terms of respiratory droplets hanging in the air,” he said. “It’s very difficult to transmit.”
While coronavirus “moved in the direction of humans in a significant way,” hantavirus has not, except for “very rare” human-to-human transmission, according to the doctor.
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There have been hantavirus cases in the U.S. for decades, although they are “very rare,” Siegel noted.
Certain factors of this disease spread are changing, including warming temperatures that are causing rodents to migrate north toward Buenos Aires, according to the doctor.
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The current outbreak stemming from the cruise ship did not help the cause, Siegel went on — but this spread doesn’t suggest that the virus has changed. Rather, it shows how close quarters on a ship are “very conducive” to spread, he said.
Passengers disembark from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, on May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)
“Every day that goes by shows that … we’re not seeing a second generation of spread,” he reiterated.
The better comparison to make is between hantavirus and bird flu, which is a predominantly animal-based virus that “occasionally infects humans,” Siegel said.
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“There are billions of birds, and every year we talk about how it’s going to cause a pandemic, but it would have to mutate significantly,” he pointed out. “I feel that [hantavirus] would have to mutate significantly before it could go human to human in any significant way, because this is basically an animal virus … it’s very comfortable inside a rodent host.”
Siegel went on, “If you get this virus, you’re in trouble, but getting this virus is very difficult.”
A person visits a COVID testing site on a Manhattan street in New York City on Jan. 21, 2022. “Coronaviruses are airborne … this is not,” Dr. Siegel said. “And coronaviruses mutate a lot, and this does not.” (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Regarding fears that another global pandemic may be looming, Siegel said that just because one virus becomes widespread does not mean all viruses will.
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“Coronaviruses are airborne anyway. This is not. And coronaviruses mutate a lot, and this does not,” he said. “I’m much more concerned about flu than this. Flu can mutate all the time, and it’s already going human to human all over the place, and it’s airborne.”
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“Most infectious disease specialists are much more worried about flu than this, as deadly as this can be,” he added.
“We’re talking apples and oranges, and any comparison you make after that provokes fear.”
Fox News Digital’s Melissa Rudy contributed to this report.
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