For baseball fans, Peter Gammons is one of the country's most popular media personalities. He's a Hall of Fame baseball reporter and Major League Baseball analyst for ESPN who has a devoted readership to his sports blog.

He's also a brain aneurysm survivor. On June 27, 2006, Peter, then 61, was stricken with a cerebral aneurysm while driving to a gym near his Falmouth home. After a passer-by summoned help, the former Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated writer was transported to Falmouth Hospital then airlifted to Brigham and Women's Hospital. There, under the care of Neurosurgeon Arthur Day, M.D., he underwent five hours of surgery to repair the aneurysm.

With his wife Gloria constantly by his side, Gammons began the difficult road to recovery after a brain injury. It became apparent very quickly that Peter Gammons had the strength, determination and will to do whatever it took.

Brigham and Women?s care coordinator Michael Randazzo recalls, "I remember thinking about some of the world's top athletes that Peter covers in his job, and that they could never match the strength and commitment shown by him and his wife."

Three weeks later, he was admitted to RHCI to begin weeks of intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy. The physical aspect of recovery proceeded quickly. The bigger question was whether Peter would regain the high level cognitive skills he needed as a sports journalist. "You do wonder if you will ever get back to normal," Peter said.

Speech therapy was challenging. The aneurysm had affected attention and organization. "We started with what he needed to accomplish daily tasks, then widened the circle of his awareness to include the increasingly complex and abstract processes he needed to do his job," says Janine Annis-Young, SLP.

"It was almost like going to college," Peter said. "The therapists would tell me, 'this is what you need to do and why.' That is an unusual skill. It really helped my rehab."

Peter came away from his experience learning a few other things, too. "I found out what 'health care' really means," he says. "People do really care. The nurses and technicians at Brigham's were incredible. On the Cape Jeannine cut weeks off my recovery, as did my occupational and physical therapists."

Just three months after the aneurysm, Peter wrote his first "Insider" column for ESPN.com since falling ill, thanking all those who had a part in his remarkable recovery. "Everyone at Brigham and Women's as well as the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands made it possible for me to be happier at the keyboard of my Sony Vaio than I've ever been before," Peter wrote.

"Doctors said it could take me more than a year to come back, but it only took me a couple of months," he added. "That's the result of these therapists. It was really meaningful and quite remarkable."

Andrea Scanlon, another Brigham and Women's Care Coordinator involved in his case states, "I couldn't believe the man that left on the ambulance stretcher from the Brigham was the same person I saw once again speaking at a Red Sox game. I cried happy tears when I saw that!".