Brain Surgeon Fights For His Own Life

Sam Hassenbusch glanced at an MRI from across the exam room one afternoon and could tell — clear as day — that he was looking at one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric reports.

"Glioblastoma. No question. Right temporal lobe. Whosever's MRI that is, is going to have a really tough time," Dr. Hassenbusch said. "That's about as ugly-looking as it gets."

But there was something very unusual about this case. That massive brain tumor the 51-year old brain surgeon was staring at was his own.

"The whole life just totally turned upside-down in the blink of an eye," he says. "I looked at that and said, 'I know the statistics. Well, it looks like I'm going to be going home to see the Lord in person a lot sooner than I guessed.'"

Most people die within a year from it.

"It's a very bad cancer," says neuro-oncologist Mark Gilbert, a friend of Hassenbusch's. "The first thing you think is, "Oh my, you know, this is going to be a very difficult road."

For Hassenbusch and his family, the road to recovery began with surgery to remove as much as the tumor as possible. The surgery would prove to be a huge challenge.

"The analogy would be like if you take a salt shaker and unscrew the top and dump it on the table, what your surgeon is doing, is getting rid of the mound of salt," says Dr. Amy Beth Heimberger, a neurosurgeon at MD Anderson Cancer Center. "They can't get rid of every grain of salt."

The operation took almost four hours. Doctors removed nearly all of the tumor. And despite some temporary double vision, by the very next day, he was tracking his own progress from the ICU. Now it was time to focus again on saving a life ... this time, his own.

"Basically, It's a death sentence; 33-to-1. Odds (are), I'm gonna die," Hassenbusch says.

With the odds so dramatically stacked against him, Hassenbusch had to make the kind of critical care decisions he usually reserves for his patients. What his doctors discovered could help you or a loved one understand the options you may have, and help you turn knowledge into power.

(Tomorrow: Find out how Hassenbusch's decisions and treatment can help you with your own options.)