Brain surgery saved her life. She went back to saving others.
Mariya Martynenko was preparing to return to Ukraine on a humanitarian mission when worsening neurological symptoms led to the discovery of a complex skull-base tumor.
When Mariya Martynenko tells the story of her brain tumor, she doesn’t start with her symptoms. She starts with the day Russia attacked her home city of Kharkiv.
Mariya had built a life in New Jersey, but Ukraine remained home. As war transformed the lives of family, friends and strangers, helping became her focus.
Her home began filling with people displaced by the invasion. She immersed herself in humanitarian work and fundraising, concentrating on what she could do for others while a very different crisis was quietly developing in her own body.
Mariya was experiencing increasingly concerning neurological symptoms. Her feet burned. Her balance was changing. She had pain in her neck. But with so much happening around her, her own health was easy to push aside.
She was focused on getting help to Ukraine—not on what her own symptoms might be trying to tell her.Mariya’s patient story
Even as she prepared for another trip to Ukraine, the symptoms continued. Eventually, they became impossible to ignore.
Her body was telling her something was wrong.
Neurological symptoms can be difficult to interpret in isolation. For Mariya, several changes were occurring at once.
An unusual sensory change that became increasingly difficult to dismiss.
Changes in coordination were beginning to affect how she moved.
Another symptom that would ultimately make sense once the tumor’s location was known.
Imaging finally provided an explanation—but it also revealed something no one had expected. There wasn’t one finding. There were two.
The MRI found an aneurysm—and a tumor that couldn’t wait.
The findings required two very different decisions. One could be watched. The other was pressing against critical structures at the base of Mariya’s brain.
5 mm brain aneurysm
The aneurysm required evaluation and follow-up, but it did not require immediate treatment.
Plan: monitorLarge foramen magnum meningioma
The skull-base tumor was located where the brain transitions into the spinal cord, extending into the upper spinal canal and crowding critical neurological structures.
Plan: treatment was necessaryMariya started with a search anyone might make.
A tumor at the foramen magnum sits in one of the most demanding areas of the skull base. Mariya needed a neurosurgeon experienced in reaching tumors around the brainstem, spinal cord, major blood vessels and lower cranial nerves.
That search led her to Yaron A. Moshel, MD, PhD, a neurosurgeon specializing in complex brain and skull-base tumors.
At her first visit, Mariya noticed an Atlantic Brain & Spine newsletter highlighting support for Ukraine. For a woman whose attention was still fixed on helping her country, the moment immediately resonated. She felt she had found the person she trusted to take care of her.
But trust also required understanding what the operation would involve. Dr. Moshel needed to explain both the seriousness of the tumor and how he planned to remove it without overwhelming her with anatomy.
Would it peel like a banana—or an orange?
Before surgery, Dr. Moshel gave Mariya a simple way to understand one of the things he wouldn’t know for certain until he began removing the tumor: how easily it would separate from the critical tissue around it.
Think about peeling a banana. The peel usually separates cleanly from the fruit. Some tumors behave similarly, with a distinct plane that allows the surgeon to carefully separate the tumor from the surrounding tissue.
An orange is different. Its peel can cling tightly to the fruit underneath. A tumor can behave that way too—adhering more closely to nearby tissue and making the dissection considerably more delicate.
For Mariya, the question was more than an analogy: Would her tumor be a banana or an orange?
The tumor was surrounded by structures that could not simply be moved aside.
Removing a foramen magnum meningioma requires working through extremely tight anatomy while protecting the neurological and vascular structures that pass through the area.
Brainstem & spinal cord
The tumor occupied the transition between the brain and upper spinal canal, leaving little room for error.
Vertebral artery
The tumor was closely associated with a major artery supplying blood to the brain.
Critical cranial nerves
Nearby nerves are involved in essential functions including swallowing, speech and balance.
Reaching the tumor meant working around the structures it had grown against.
Dr. Moshel used a far-lateral skull-base approach to reach the meningioma and carefully separate it from the surrounding neurological and vascular anatomy.
The surgical approach provided access to the foramen magnum and the tumor at the junction of the brainstem and upper spinal canal.
The vertebral artery was carefully mobilized to create a safe corridor to the tumor while protecting blood flow to the brain.
Working under the microscope, Dr. Moshel carefully separated the meningioma from the brainstem, vertebral artery and surrounding neurological structures.
Particular care was required around the lower cranial nerves involved in functions such as swallowing, speech and balance as the tumor was removed.
Dr. Moshel was able to achieve a gross-total resection of the meningioma while preserving the critical neurological and vascular structures surrounding it.
Then came a question Mariya immediately understood.
The operation was over. The tumor had been removed. Now the immediate question was how Mariya’s neurological function had come through such a delicate surgery.
“Banana or orange?”
It was Mariya’s first question when she woke up after surgery. She wanted to know what Dr. Moshel had found: had the tumor separated cleanly from the surrounding tissue like a banana peel, or had it clung more tightly like the peel of an orange?
Recovery continued, and the focus gradually shifted from the operation itself to whether Mariya could return to the life—and the work—that had occupied her thoughts before surgery.
Gross-total resection of the foramen magnum meningioma.
Follow-up imaging showed the surgical result remained clear.
Mariya could finally return to the humanitarian work waiting for her.
Brain surgery interrupted her mission. It didn’t end it.
Once she was medically cleared, Mariya returned her attention to the work that had consumed her before the diagnosis: helping people living through the war in Ukraine.
Her humanitarian efforts included fundraising and support for mental-health programs serving Ukrainians affected by the war, including veterans and psychologists working near the front lines.
Her work continued after brain surgery, supporting programs designed to help Ukrainians coping with the psychological consequences of war.
Mariya’s story didn’t stop with brain surgery.
Since her neurosurgery, Mariya has continued to face challenges, including treatment for breast cancer. But the instinct that carried her through the months surrounding her brain tumor has remained remarkably consistent: keep moving forward, and keep finding something meaningful to do for someone else.
For Mariya, recovery was never simply about getting back to where she had been. It was about getting back to the people and purpose that mattered to her.
When life becomes difficult, Mariya’s instinct is to focus on something larger than the challenge in front of her.Mariya’s story
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