Life-threatening condition, tumor leads Montgomery County author to hope and inspiration

BALA CYNWYD, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Action News is starting a new segment called Hope's Heartbeat, which focuses on a feeling that unites us all.

So many of us encounter challenges in life, many of which you see on the news each night. All you can do is cling to hope and some who do channel that into positive change.

Jim Zervanos from Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County, is one of those people.

He's a teacher, a writer, and a man who had just become a dad when his life changed in an instant.

A selfie with his 1-year-old son is the last picture Zervanos took while his life was still seemingly perfect. One hour later, with blood rushing to his head, he thought he was going to die.

On August 16, 2011, Zervanos was supposed to be at a Phillies game. Instead, he found himself in an emergency room.

"All of a sudden my head and neck started to swell up with backed-up blood flow," he recalled.

Hours later, an X-ray came that would change everything.

"This (vein) was providing me with about three to five millimeters of blood flow where it should have been a fluid of 15 millimeters," he said.

Teams of some of the best doctors were stumped by what was causing this.

Ultimately, it was determined that doing a biopsy would be fatal, and not doing anything would also be fatal.

"I was hugging my parents and my wife and essentially saying goodbye," recalled Zervanos.

Then the Hail Mary came in the form of Dr. Alberto Pochettino and a radical operation that would remove the affected vein and replace it with a graft.

"I said, 'So there's hope.' I couldn't imagine it. And he said, 'There's always hope,'" Zervanos recalled.

The operation was a success, but it turns out that a lymphoma tumor was causing the narrowing of the vein.

"I think it took me a second or two to understand that that meant you've got cancer," he noted.

So, then came chemotherapy, which gratefully worked.

Fast forward 10 years and Zervanos has a second son, and he's written a book titled 'That Time I Got Cancer: A Love Story' about his experience.

"What started with just a story about that time I got cancer, I had to add the subtitle 'A Love Story,' because that's really what this whole experience is," he said. "And not just a love of family and my wife and my kids and my parents and my friends, but a love of my doctors and the relationship that I think was extraordinary."

He says he uses his ordeal to give talks to medical professionals about hope.

Zervanos also says it has allowed him to listen to others in a different way.

"I experienced a deeper sense of compassion that I didn't have to think about having. It came naturally as I would hear about other people going through things," he recalled.

If you or someone you know has triumphed when faced with a life-threatening situation, Action News wants to tell your story.

Click here to share the lessons you or someone you know may have learned along the way.