Maria Silver's Story
For Maria Silver, a New York City public school teacher, it all started with an earache. Then came headaches. Incontinence. And then, suddenly, paralysis. An MRI showed that Maria had a baseball-sized noncancerous tumor in her brain. For NewYork-Presbyterian neurosurgeon Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna, the challenge was not only to remove the tumor safely, but to reconstruct Maria’s skull to maintain a normal shape. When Maria woke up after surgery, all of her symptoms were gone. But there was one unexpected but very welcome side effect. Color-blind since birth, Maria now could see the world in full, glorious color.