INDIANAPOLIS — For one north side family, the holiday season has been extra special this year after their son miraculously recovered from what could have been a life-ending brain injury.
“In a snap just my whole life changed," Ryan Wernke exclaimed.
Ryan was like any high school kid.
“I was just playing lacrosse, going to school - everything was normal," he said.
But suddenly, it all changed.
“My left eye, I wasn’t really able to see well. I was just slow, like, I just felt delayed. And it was really unlike anything I’d ever felt," Ryan explained.
He chalked it up to a headache or the flu, until one day at lacrosse practice.
"When I really first started to notice something was when I was trying to catch a ball and it just hit me straight in the face mask," Ryan said.
A concerned teammate then asked his father - an eye doctor - for advice.
“Which got me an eye exam and that’s when they found out something was really wrong with my left eye," Ryan stated.
“It is not common, it is quite uncommon for young patients - especially teenagers," Dr. Troy Payner, a neurosurgeon with Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine, said.
Ryan was sent to Ascension St. Vincent under the care of Dr. Payner. That's where they confirmed he had suffered a ruptured arteriovenous malformation - or AVM - in his brain.
“In an AVM there are abnormal connections, branches off this artery go straight into the vein - they don’t go to the capillaries, so what happens is the veins then get high pressure in them, they’re not used to that," Dr. Payner explained. "But on any given day, one of those vessels can burst.”
Ryan spent over 10 days in the ICU before undergoing brain surgery,
“It was just shock because I had been pretty much healthy my whole life," he said. "So for this just to happen randomly and hearing all the odds, I think it was just ‘holy cow, this is really happening.'”
Ryan was home just 48 hours after the surgery, with 20+ staples in the back of his head.
“About 10% of patients who have a hemorrhage from an AVM don’t survive it, and many patients, depending on where the hemorrhage occurs, can have some permanent deficits," Dr. Payner said.
Ryan beat the odds, and today, he is recovering well and has even returned to playing the sports he loves.
“It’s awesome to see him do so well," Dr. Payner said with a smile. "He’s a great student, great athlete, and I’m just delighted that he’s able to get back to doing all those things again.”
“Kind of looking at life with a perspective of I want to be able to help others cause, you know, I didn’t really speak up about my symptoms at first, so being able to speak up for others," Ryan said.
An AVM is extremely rare, with Dr. Payner saying it presents in about 1 in 100,000 people. However, he said if you start experiencing symptoms - like a sudden bad headache or new loss of function, like numbness or weakness, somewhere on your body - it's best to get it checked out with your local doctor.
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Casey Zanowic is the In Your Community reporter for North Side Indy. She joined WRTV in July of 2025. Casey has a passion for storytelling and is ready to showcase impactful stories that make a difference in her community. Share your story ideas and important issues with Casey by emailing her at casey.zanowic@wrtv.com.
