Seattle Mariners left-hander Anthony Vasquez is lucky to be alive after undergoing emergency surgery Friday to repair a ruptured blood vessel in his brain, reports Greg Johns of MLB.com:

Doctors discovered Vasquez, 26, had a ruptured blood vessel in his brain and performed 5 1/2 hours of surgery Friday after the former 18th-round Draft pick felt some problems with his vision while working out at the Mariners' training complex in Peoria, Ariz., where he was recovering from a shoulder injury...

"He's a miracle," said his father, Rudy… "When the neurosurgeon came out he said, 'Your son should be dead, but he's not.'"

Vasquez was discharged from the hospital Monday afternoon to return to his family’s home in San Antonio, Texas. Doctors repaired what is known as a ruptured arteriovenous malformation (AVM), essentially a life-threatening tangle of blood vessels on the brain.

Vasquez had been suffering from recent headaches but did not think anything of it until he encountered vision problems and dizziness during a throwing session on Wednesday. A lesion was discovered in his brain during subsequent tests, which led to the surgery Friday morning in which the ruptured blood vessel was found.