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April 5, 2017

Kidney stone patient becomes fan of lithotripter, thanks to urologist

Brandy Casey has been the victim of many kidney stones during the past several years and had always been able to get rid of them on her own. But the last one was a drastically different experience.
Blood in her urine was the first sign, then she fainted from pain and nausea. A CT scan at the emergency room detected a kidney stone measuring 6 mm. That’s big. An average ureter is 3 mm to 4 mm wide.
Obviously Brandy was not going to be able to pass this stone on her own so the hospital referred her to Urologist Dr. Mark Burson, who sent her back to the hospital for a date with a lithotripter, which blasted the stone into sand.
“It did the job very well,” she says. “If I ever have to have a procedure again, I will request that first.”
In addition to being a big fan of the lithotripter, Brandy also was very impressed with Dr. Burson, known around the hospitals for his cowboy hat and boots.
“I wish he were a family doctor,” she says. “He was amazing. Very personable. He makes you feel comfortable. No matter how much pain I was in he still made me laugh.”
It was not just Dr. Burson’s jovial attitude that won him over, she says.
“No matter the situation, he was great,” she says. “He’s very on top of everything. He can laugh and cut up but he’s serious also. I’m thankful he’s my urologist.”


Brandy was born in Dallas about three days before her parents planned to move back to Alabama. At 10 years old, Brandy began helping take care of her grandfather.
“I knew then that I wanted to work with patients,” she says.
She moved back to Dallas in 2008 and, during her six years there, she worked in an emergency facility and in a psychiatric hospital. Now, at 29, and living in Ruth, she works as a patient care tech.
“It’s very rewarding,” she says. “Any time I’m helping someone, it’s very rewarding.”