About Us
Hi! My name is Veronika White, and I am an AVM survivor.
A few months after having sustained a second brain hemorrhage from my intercranial AVM, I set up the AVM Foundation to start raising funds and awareness for the condition (and others like it). Given that I have first-hand experience with the devastation that this condition can cause in anyone's life, I wanted to do something to help everyone else going through this. I have been raising money for the foundation ever since 2001.
AVM (ArterioVenous Malformation) is a cluster of arteries and veins that malformed during fetal development. This is a very unstable malformation, and thus can burst at any time, causing things like stroke, paralysis, or even death. It is predicted that this condition affects less than 1% of the general population (about one in every hundred thousand people) and can occur in people or all races and sexes in almost equal proportions. About four out of every hundred people with an ABM will have a bleed (hemorrhage) during any one year, which injures the surrounding area of the body, which can result in a stroke.
A variety of symptoms may be produced depending on the location and size of the AVM. Some of these symptoms may be seizures, headaches, migraines, stroke-like symptoms, or bleeding. Most patients do not survive past the first hemorrhage, but those that do usually sustain some degree of disability, usually quite severe.
I was diagnosed at only age eleven, back in 1996. Since that time, very little to no research has been done to help AVM patients. No known cause is documented as of yet. This fact makes me sad, so I am pushing even harder to get something done about it.
Help me change the future for patients with vascular malformations! Help me find better options for treatment and patient diagnosis & care.
