Oklahoma Woman Shares Brain Surgery Experience With Rocker Bret Michaels

A Tulsa woman got a backstage visit with rocker Bret Michaels Thursday night.

But why the VIP status?

Susan Ponville and Bret Michaels both had risky brain surgeries at the same hospital and recovered, against all odds.

In 2010, Oklahoma surgeons couldn't help Susan. They said her brain tumor was too deep.

Ponville found help at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona, the same place where singer Bret Michaels was treated for a brain hemorrhage a year before. 

The fellow survivors shared their stories with one another after Michaels performed at the Hard Rock Casino.

"It was just easy to talk, you know, easy to talk to him about it. Still star struck though!" Ponville said.

The Barrow Neurological Institute does more brain surgeries than any hospital in the U.S.