Kelly Stafford recovering from complicated brain surgery: 'Truly God's work'

DETROIT, Mich. — Kelly Stafford, the wife of former Georgia and current NFL star quarterback Matt Stafford, is recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumor.

Kelly Stafford posted a video to Instagram on Sunday, showing her taking some of her first steps after the 12-hour surgery in Detroit.

“This Easter is the beginning of a new life for me,” she wrote.

After feeling dizzy and off-balance in January, doctors diagnosed Kelly Stafford with an acoustic neuroma.

"An acoustic neuroma is a benign tumor that grows not from the brain, but actually from the covering of one of the cranial nerves," Dr. Dan Barrow, chairman of Emory's Department of Neurosurgery, told Channel 2 Action News.

Barrow did not treat Stafford but told Channel 2 Action News he knows the neurosurgeon who did.

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Problems with balance and hearing loss are common symptoms of acoustic neuroma.

“Eventually if these continue to grow without treatment, they can actually be life-threatening. Not something that happens imminently, but as they get larger they can compress the brain stem,” Barrow said.

Treatment options include surgery or a focused beam of radiation.

In Kelly Stafford’s case, it was surgery.

But what was supposed to be a 6-hour operation turned into 12, with the discovery of an abnormal vein.

Stafford is thankful her neurosurgeon was ready to handle the complication.

“He had seen it before and written a paper on it. That’s truly God’s work,” Stafford wrote.

Stafford is now recovering in her Detroit-area home.

Her husband Matt is quarterback for the Detroit Lions. The couple started dating at Georgia where she was a cheerleader and he was a record-setting quarterback. They married in 2015 and have three daughters.

Cox Media Group