STANFORD, Calif. – During the fall quarter, junior coxswain Liza Gurtin was told by a doctor that she would need brain surgery and would never row again.
However, Liza is not one to take no for an answer. When she was told she would need brain surgery to correct an inner ear disorder, her desire to row and the doctor’s words was like an unstoppable force colliding with an immovable object.
Now that unstoppable force has already returned to racing and is the coxswain of the varsity four for the upcoming NCAA Championships in Gold River, Calif.
Symptoms
It started last year during her sophomore season at Stanford when she performed poorly on Stanford’s Balanced Error Scoring System test, which measures balance and stability. Later she started having vertigo and dizzy spells.
“The big thing that stuck out with her abnormally poor result on her modified BESS test, was that she was falling to the right every time she closed her eyes,” said Assistant Athletic Trainer Matt Mills. “Her range was so abnormal that we thought she needed to be further evaluated by a physician.”
Numerous visits to the doctor provided a varying difference in diagnoses. Since there are a lot of different causes for those symptoms, she was diagnosed with allergies, chronic ear infections and even Meniere's disease, an inner ear disorder.
“I went to a lot of doctors and it never went away,” said Liza. “It was manageable enough that I could get through my day with only slight dizziness, so I didn’t bring it up anymore.”
Symptoms got worse. She developed Oscillopsia, a visual disturbance where objects become blurry or seem to jump. A symbolic systems major, Liza found it extremely hard to focus on projects that involved staring at a computer screen as the Oscillopsia made the items on the screen bounce up and down for her. She had to drop one of her computer science courses because of the problem.
“My quality of life was low and I was unhappy." Liza Gurtin
Her silence lasted until last summer. She was in Seattle working with the digital marketing team for Windows 10 at Microsoft when her worst episode yet hit. This one was not manageable.
“One day at work the vertigo came back … but way worse,” said Liza. “The room was spinning. From then on I was determined to go to as many doctors as it took.”
There were more visits to the doctor and more theories on what was wrong with her ear, but still they netted no positive results.
“It was obviously disheartening for her,” said Bill Gurtin, Liza’s father. “No one can see it, no one can observe it. It is not like having a broken arm. Watching her in pain and fighting through it was heartbreaking for us.”
After a long and exhausting process of seeing doctor after doctor, Liza finally got the answer she was looking for when she saw a doctor at Stanford in September and had a CT scan done.
Diagnosis
The scan revealed that she had a Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence, which is a rare medical condition involving the inner ear. With Liza there was a small opening about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen in her semicircular canal.
The surgery is very new and research on the condition only dates back to 1998, after Liza was born. It also was more common in the age range of 40-50 and Liza would be the youngest individual by 15 years to have the procedure done.
Liza’s mother, Kay Gurtin, started doing extensive research to try and find the perfect surgeon for her. She came across a webinar on the condition by Dr. Issac Yang of UCLA.
“A lightbulb went off,” said Kay. “I finally understood what exactly was wrong with Liza. He showed a diagram that explained the surgery. At the end of the webinar there was a phone number and email address so I emailed him right away.”
Dr. Yang replied to Kay’s email and wanted Liza to come in and see him and Dr. Quinton Gopen. After tests confirmed the Stanford diagnosis. However, the doctors told her she should take the rest of the year off and would not be able to row again.
That option did not fly with Liza. The second recommendation was to take a lighter course load, not row and do the surgery in June. No dice. Liza was convinced she could have the surgery before winter break, not miss any class and be back for the rowing season.
“I came back and told Yaz (Farooq) that I would be fine,” said Liza. “I just wanted to get the surgery done as quickly as possible because in my mind I didn’t want to miss out on anything.”
The surgery date was scheduled for Dec. 12, the earliest possible date available for the doctors.
Surgery
When it came time for the surgery more obstacles stood in Liza’s way. Liza moved her CS107: Computer Organization and Systems final exam up a day early to Dec. 11. After her exam she planned to fly out for her surgery but a rare heavy rainstorm cancelled several flights in the Bay Area. Lucky enough Liza was able to get out at 8 p.m. and made it to the hospital at 5 a.m. to get prepped for surgery.
“They went in through a craniotomy and drilled a dime-sized hole in my skull,” said Liza. “They used that piece of my skull to make a bone graph and put over the dehiscence.”
The entire surgery was filmed to use for research as Liza was the youngest to have gone through it.
“The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that things were a lot quieter,” said Liza. “I was in a lot of pain. I had a headache from them taking a piece of my skull and they also took muscle from my jaw.”
After two days in the hospital, Liza went to her home in San Diego. She had two minor setbacks with a post-op fever and a dilated pupil, but was able to get past it and saw major improvement in two weeks.
Missing rowing already, Liza went and saw her Stanford teammates at the Winter Training camp over New Year’s, just weeks after her surgery. She was cleared to go back to school for winter quarter, but was still told she couldn’t do any rowing activities, lifting weights or light activities like running.
The Rowing Itch
Liza’s goal to not miss any of the rowing season was still etched in stone in her mind. She improved week by week and was cleared to rejoin the team for practice in March, three months after her surgery. Unfortunately for her the timing was not the best as she had a setback less than a week into practice.
“It was final exams week and I had a paper due five minutes before practice and I had a coxswain meeting with Yaz,” said Liza. “I was stressed out.”
Midway through that practice the team was doing racing pieces and she got incredibly dizzy. She had to get out of the boat. She was dizzy for three days after as well.
“The doctor basically said that I was done after that,” said Liza. “At least until my six month evaluation in June. However, I can be very persuasive.”
She ended up missing all of the regular season, but she remained a big part of the team. She did backup timing for home races, ran land workouts for injured rowers and met weekly with freshman coxswain Madi Kist.
“Liza really loves this team,” said head coach Yasmin Farooq. “She volunteered to help out in any way possible as she continued to heal. She took it upon herself to reach out to Madi Kist to help her continue to grow and develop as a coxswain.”
Despite staying involved with the team, not being able to be out on the water was tough for Liza.
Return to Racing
Still trying to get back in action, Liza came up with a plan. She first convinced the vestibular therapist that she was ready to return and that led to getting cleared by the doctors once again. She started rowing again the day before the Big Row and two weeks before the Pac-12 Championships.
“Liza is a determined, responsible, wise and driven young woman,” said Bill. “We left the decision to her. She sold it in a way that nobody could say no. Nothing surprises me when it comes to Liza. If she puts her mind to it, there is little that she can’t accomplish.”
Returning to the lineup for the Pac-12 Championships, the coaches put Liza in the varsity four. Assistant coach Nate Rooks made padding from Styrofoam for Liza to lean against and prop her up to avoid her hitting her head on the boat.
“We call it ‘my jetpack’ and it gives me more sensory points to decrease the chance of dizziness,” said Liza.
Liza guided the varsity four to a fifth place finish at Pac-12’s. The boat was 0.6 seconds behind USC for fourth place.
“At one point we didn't think we would be able to get Liza back for the season at all,” said Farooq. “She continued to work really hard in her physical therapy and made tremendous gains. It was truly remarkable.”
Now after being told less than six months that she would never row again, Liza has proved that you should never say never. She will return to the racecourse at Lake Natoma this weekend as the coxswain of the varsity four at the NCAA Championships.