Matthew Stafford's Wife Kelly Battled Brain Tumor in 2019, Had It Removed During 12 Hour Surgery

Kelly Stafford is the wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and you may not know that in 2019, she had a brain tumor removed in a 12-hour surgery.

She’s now tumor free all these years later, and as her husband preps for the 2022 Super Bowl, we’re sharing her story here.

Click inside to read more…

In an essay for ESPN, Kelly explained, “The first moment I was really concerned was last January. I was in Michigan, and had just gotten a massage. When I walked out, I just didn’t feel right. I was lightheaded and it felt like the world was spinning around me. I texted Matthew: ‘I might need you to come pick me up.’ But then I waited a little bit in my car, and started feeling better, so I drove home myself. A week later, it happened again. This time, I was holding our daughter, Hunter, who was just an infant. The room started spinning around me and I felt like I was going to fall down. I almost threw Hunter to Matthew, because I didn’t want her to go down with me.”

“The day I almost dropped Hunter, we were heading to California for vacation. At first I resisted because we had so much to do, but Matthew and I went to the ER to get checked out. My blood work looked great. My vitals were fine. Doctors offered to do an MRI, but I said I didn’t have time. So they gave me Antivert, which is a medicine for vertigo, and we left for vacation. The problem was, the medicine wasn’t having any effect on me,” she continued.

She later did get an MRI.

“A few days after the MRI, we got the results. The medical term was an acoustic neuroma or vestibular schwannoma. There was a tumor sitting on some of my cranial nerves. I was told I needed to have surgery to remove it. And I was terrified,” she continued.

Kelly added, “I had the surgery on April 17. They were going to open up my head and there was a 50 percent chance I would lose my hearing. There was a chance I’d lose facial function. It was all really scary. Dr. Greg Thompson did the surgery, and I can’t say enough good things about him. A few times, he stopped the surgery because my audio waves went dead. His patience is what saved my hearing. He made everyone stop and wait until the wave return.”

She continued, “Matthew was incredible during the whole process. He was literally by my side at every step. I had exercises I needed to do — some of them were seemingly simple, like shaking my head left and right — and Matthew helped me through all of it. The first month or two, we would try to walk down the street and sit on a bench and do the exercises. When a car passed by, it felt like a whirl. Doctors told me the more uncomfortable I can be, the better it will be in the long term because that’s when your brain starts learning. I would walk on the sidewalk, then I would try walking through the mall, just to experience all the people going by. I couldn’t really tell what I was seeing out of the right side. One person would look like four. Even if I tried to look right, it was hard.”

Kelly added, “If there’s anything I want people to take away from my story, it’s for mothers. If you ever feel the slightest bit off, you need to take the time to get it checked out. You don’t have to put everything on your back. Sometimes, you need to take some time to make sure you are OK. Dr. Thompson said the fact I listened to myself early on is what saved my hearing (and to be honest, I should have listened earlier). The longer I would have waited, the tumor would have grown, and my hearing would have been gone. That’s what usually brings people in.”

We’re so happy to report that Kelly is doing well today. After Matthew won the Super Bowl, she slammed those who were still questioning his skills.