Humberto Rodriguez Lopez (right) embracing Jacques J. Morcos, MD, at UTHealth Houston. (Photo by UTHealth Houston) When Humberto Rodriguez Lopez lay down for brain surgery in June 2021, he had no way of knowing the procedure would be the first in a five-year medical journey that spanned two countries and two states. Then 15, Humberto hadn’t quite grasped the magnitude of the cavernous angioma, a cluster of abnormal blood vessels in his brainstem, doctors had found.