 Inseparable for their entire lives, these Maryland sisters share a medical condition they discovered only recently when it nearly killed them. Hi, I'm Bonnie. And I'm Donna. We have Lois State Syndrome. The rare genetic condition can lead to an aneurysm or sudden rupture in the wall of the aorta, the large vessel that distributes blood from the heart to the rest of the body. Both women were stricken less than a year apart. So we went in to watch a movie on 4th of July. My sister and her husband and my husband and I, and I started feeling uncomfortable back of the shoulders and neck, so I decided I needed to get up and walk. And my sister Bonnie followed me out the doors and I said I'm going down and I did a collapse at that point. And I had extreme jaw pain and went to the hospital with what I thought was heart attack and ended up being flown to shock trauma. And honestly, I don't remember much after that. I was in University of Maryland cardiac ICU for 37 days. And that's when they said, since my sister had an aorta dissection six months prior, that we should be genetically tested. And that's when we found out that we had Lois State Syndrome. Dr. Bradley Taylor performed life-saving surgery on both women to repair their aortic vessels. Both patients presented through acute aortic emergencies. They dissected their aortas that carried all the way down to their root. One was operated on in 2016 for an acute aortic dissection and the other sister was operated on in 2017 for the same presentation, acute aortic emergency, and had her aortic root, her valve, and her ascending repair. Because it's Lois Deeds and because the structural integrity, they've had to undergo subsequent operations to repair other parts of their aorta related to their dissection. But in reality, they've both done remarkably well. For part of her long recovery, Bonnie was in a coma, kept alive by a heart-lung machine and dialysis. And they didn't know at the time if I'd be able to walk again because circulation was taken off, taken from my legs. The first time I got up to actually walk down the halls, there was a nurse with me and my husband, somebody had a pole that I, some of the IV poles, someone had, I think my husband had that recliner behind me and when I came out of the room and I started walking down the halls, I'm going to tear up. Doctors and nurses were lined up and they just all started applauding. Donna and Bonnie now know their lifelong health problems were caused by Lois Deeds syndrome, which affects connective tissue. It explained a lot. It explained why I have had surgeries from my neck to my feet. I've had a neck fusion. I've had a rotator cuff repair on my shoulder. I need one on the other. My hip, I had to get a new hip. Seems like I'm in and out of the hospital frequently, but it's not aortic as much as it is the Lois Deeds and his tax organs, liver, spleen, gallbladder, arthritis. Donna says her two daughters and two granddaughters have been diagnosed with Lois Deeds syndrome. Now that they know, doctors can monitor their condition and take steps to prevent aortic damage. The important thing is for patients who have a family history of aortic dissection or aortic rupture or are at risk of having an acute aortic emergency that those patients get operated on earlier. We know that patients who have Lois Deeds should be operated on at smaller sizes of their aortas and we traditionally repair on other patients and this increases the likelihood of preventing acute aortic emergencies. Donna and Bonnie know how lucky they were to survive and they're both very grateful for the care they've received at the University of Maryland. Oh the care here has been fantastic, really, really good and very loving, very good to take care of every matter. There's future, there's life. You can do what you want to do, maybe not how you used to. But there is life and there is joy.