Bradley Weisbord is expected to be released from Weill-Cornell Medical Center in New York City on Saturday, Dec. 19, after a successful six-hour surgery Tuesday to remove a benign cavernous malformation symptomatic hemorrhage in the left temporal lobe of his brain, according to his father.
“The surgery went well, but it was difficult and complex,” said Barry Weisbord. “Brad will recover for six to eight weeks before returning to work in February.”
The surgery was performed by Dr. Philip Stieg, who has been the Neurosurgeon-in-Chief at New York Presbyterian/Weill-Cornell for 20 years.
Weisbord had sent a letter to friends and clients informing them of the impending surgery last Saturday, in which he explained the reasons for the procedure.
“As many of you know, in September of 2018, I was diagnosed with a cavernous malformation; a lesion in the brain that had hemorrhaged,” he wrote in the letter last week. “At that time, this caused the symptoms of severe headaches, speech issues and short-term recall issues. After a few surgical opinions deeming the surgery too risky for one bleed, and the odds that it was unlikely to bleed again (in the short term), I was able to recover to what I feel was 100% in a few months.”
But Weisbord, who suffered a severe bout of COVID-19 at the beginning of the outbreak in America, began feeling symptoms again this fall, he wrote.
“Unfortunately, after my rough bout with COVID-19 in March of this year, an MRI showed a second minor bleed. My neurologist thought this was due to COVID, and we continued to watch it. Most recently, beginning in late October, I have been in a tremendous amount of daily head pain. I waited until our work was done in Kentucky and got a scan as soon as I returned home to New York City in November. The MRI revealed the third, and biggest bleed to date, and we have all decided it's time to try to safely remove the lesion as the malformation is now growing, considered a chronic bleeder, that if not addressed could lead to deficits down the road.”
The news came after this year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale, where Weisbord and his partner, Liz Crow, sold the sales topper Monomoy Girl for $9.5 million, a record for a racing or broodmare prospect, among five seven-figure mares.
“Brad got through the sale, albeit in a lot of pain, which he hid well,” said his father. “As such, his doctors felt it was time to remove the lesion, as it was causing severe headaches and hemorrhage and could have become a more serious problem,” said his father.
Stieg performed what is known as an awake craniotomy, a procedure performed while the patient is awake and alert. During the procedure, the surgical team, led by Dr. Babacar Cisse, a neurosurgical expert in brain mapping, and Dr. Heider Alexander Bender, performed cortical mapping to identify the vital areas called the “eloquent brain” that controls speech and movement which surrounded the lesion, approximately the size of a raspberry.
“We all are so grateful to the doctors and feel so fortunate to have found this incredible group of surgeons that will allow him to make a full recovery,” said Barry Weisbord. “The team at BSW/Crow Bloodstock and Elite Sales, including Liz, Katelyn Jackson and Jake Memolo, have been fully prepared to run the business and their upcoming consignment at Keeneland January while he continues to recover. We expect to see him back at full strength and at the races and sales by February.”
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