Brett Dyke

After having a brain tumor removed in 2001, Brett Dyke required only two weeks to recover before returning to work as a waiter at Le Cirque in Bellagio.Here, he serves wine to a couple at the restaurant.
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Other than the 6-inch scar on the back of his head, Brett Dyke shows no effects from the 2001 surgery to remove a brain tumor.
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After recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumor in 2001, Brett Dyke enrolled in dental school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.He says he chose dentistry because he wants to help people.Here, he works on a mouth model at the school.
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Not prone to them, Dyke had the kind of sickening headache that makes a grown man take to his bed, so that's exactly what the 30-year-old did.

He thought he'd sleep the pain off before getting up to go to his job waiting tables at Le Cirque in Bellagio.

"Little did I know I wouldn't wake up," Dyke says, recounting that day over a glass of tea at a Strip casino coffee shop.

It was March 18, 2001, but Dyke, now 32, doesn't remember much about the day, as his morning nap turned into a 48-hour coma.He knows only what his roommate -- who found him after a co-worker called because he was uncharacteristically late -- told him.

His eyes had rolled up into the back of his head when his roommate tried to shake him awake.Worried, he phoned Dyke's parents, who told him to call an ambulance.Dyke was rushed to St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson, where they discovered that his sodium levels had dropped dangerously low.

After receiving intravenous fluids, he awoke from the coma.By then, doctors had checked his blood, performed CT scans, X-rays and a battery of tests to find the cause: a brain tumor.

A hemangioblastoma to be exact, resting right on Dyke's brain stem, that vital area responsible for a person's breathing, heartbeat and other life-sustaining functions.It was benign, but the fact that it was a brain tumor made it life-threatening; its placement made it more so.The surgery needed to remove it would be just as dangerous, but at least it would give Dyke a chance.

"You're living in the best time, in the best place with the best technology for the problem you have," Dyke's neurosurgeon, Dr. Randal Peoples, told him at the time.
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Dyke knew that, he says, but what he didn't realize was the role his own grandfather played in his care, not to mention the treatment of others with neurological disorders.

Those contributions became crystalline to Dyke throughout his treatment and recovery.
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So it is that knowledge that gives the Dyke family the feeling that some guiding force protected Brett.
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Brett was very fortunate."
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Now, as a way to give back to those who helped him, Dyke donates money to several charities, including the UCLA neuroresearch fund and Shade Tree shelter for women and children, through MGM Mirage's VOICE Foundation.

"I was one of the lucky ones who gets to give back.I went through a life-changing event," Dyke says.