Harbor Police officer's seizure led to discovery of dangerous brain condition

A 42-year-old Navy veteran and Port of San Diego Harbor Police officer is recovering after a seizure led doctors to discover a dangerous brain condition, called arterial arteriovenous malformation or AVM, that required multiple surgeries.

Officer Mitchell Collier suffered the seizure on Sept. 16 while at a mall arcade with his two young sons after school. His wife, Sheena Collier, who is a nurse, said she was at the end of her shift when she received a phone call from him that immediately raised concern.

“It was Mitchell and he sounded like, you know, I felt like something was happening,” Sheena Collier said. “He said, ‘Hey, I’m with the kids,’ and I thought, ‘OK?’ and that’s when another voice was in the background, and it was the fire captain. And he said, ‘I’m with your husband right now. He’s here at the mall. He had a seizure. He’s here with your children. Are you able to come here and be here?’”

From there, Sheena Collier said she immediately rushed to the mall and Mitchell Collier was taken to Scripps Mercy Hospital. She said they didn’t have any inkling of what could have caused this to happen at the time.

After scans and imaging, doctors diagnosed Mitchell Collier with an arteriovenous malformation, also known as an AVM. Sheena Collier described it as a tangled knot of vessels and arteries that prevented blood from flowing properly to his brain.

“It came out of nowhere. There was no indication. He didn’t feel dizzy,” she said, adding that he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary that day.

Once doctors identified the AVM, she said there was initial hope because there was treatment. However, because of the size and location of the AVM, the process became more complex.

“That was another really daunting information process, that it wasn’t just like a get in there and out,” she said. “We knew that it was going to take four [to] five, roughly, procedures for him to get treated.”

So, that’s what they did. After five separate procedures, causing the Collier family to go back and forth from stays at the hospital to home, surgeons were able to remove the AVM during a final surgery, but that time, his recovery process required more intensive care. 

“If a normal, everyday person were to see Mitchell, he looks like himself. He is very physically strong. He is very physically capable,” she said.

Still, he continues to experience challenges. “He’s had effects to his speech and communication,” she said. 

Mitchell Collier is now two weeks into a brain injury rehabilitation program at Scripps Encinitas Rehabilitation Services. The program focuses on strength, coordination, speech, and everyday tasks, including cooking.

“It’s really a cool program. It’s very intensive. Our kids call it daddy school,” she said.

Mitchell Collier is a Navy veteran who grew up in San Diego, where he met his wife at the age of 12. The two attended Morse High School together. She described him as her “first crush,” and after his time as a sailor, the two found themselves back together and married. They then moved to Hawaii, where he joined the Kauai Police Department and they had their first son. Sheena Collier said that’s about when they decided to return home and Mitchell Collier joined the Port of San Diego Harbor Police in 2018.

A job—really more of an innate purpose—he wants to get back to. 

“He’s always been a protector,” she said. “He’s always been not only just physically strong, I think there’s just something, he feels he needs to watch over his loved ones and that translates to just watching over the people around him.”

She said the support from family, friends and the community has been overwhelming, through check-ins, visits and fundraising. The Peace Officer Research Association of California (PORAC) recently launched a fundraising platform through the Fund a Hero initiative for the Collier family to help “ease the financial burdens caused by Officer Collier’s medical bills, recovery, and his wife’s Sheena’s time away from work,” according to the page. 

“I think he realizes that what he contributed to his family, his friends and his community is now just being reciprocated to him,” she said.

Mitchell Collier has received life-saving awards during his time in uniform and, most recently, served as a field training officer with Harbor Police, mentoring the next generation of officers.

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.