A 6-year-old Southern California girl battling a rare brain disease had one side of her brain sealed off by surgeons as a potential cure that would still allow her to be “the same person” and live a normal life, according to her doctor. team.
Brianna Bodley deals with daily seizures from Rasmussen’s encephalitis – a chronic inflammation of the brain that can cause permanent brain damage and impaired motor skills, but a 10-hour surgery may be the trick to beating RE, reports KABC.
Instead of removing part of his brain as doctors usually do, pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Aaron Robison, of Loma Linda University Health, said covering half of his brain was the most effective method.
“Just disconnecting is enough to stop the disease completely and basically, potentially cure it,” he told the station.
Brianna was diagnosed with the debilitating disease last year, causing the once-singing, dancing and reading girl to suffer daily.
“Her legs would be bent all the time and she would have trouble walking,” said the girl’s mother, Crystal Bodley.
Brianna Bodley was diagnosed with a rare brain disease last year. Facebook
When he started taking anti-seizure drugs and steroids, he gained weight rapidly and continued to deal with the increasing disease.
“He’ll talk to me sometimes and say he’s scared, but I tell him, ‘I know it’s scary, but you’re going to be okay,'” his sister Torie Bodley told KABC.
Doctors decided to shut down the part of his brain that wasn’t working by going through a natural opening in the brain called the sylvian fissure, Robison said.
The left side still works and now takes over the right side’s duties. Doctors said the girl may have lost some peripheral vision and some fine motor skills in her left hand, but physical therapy will help return her to a normal 6-year-old.
The 6-year-old underwent surgery last month. Facebook
“Brianna will still be the same person, even after severing half her brain,” Robison said, according to the local station.
The Bodleys have been posting on Instagram about Brianna’s road to recovery since her surgery went well towards the end of September. A few days ago, her mother reported that she was walking with help and on Sunday, she said the little girl was awake all day for the first time since the surgery.
“Happy that my baby is back and awake. Still working on balance and learning to walk. Finding things on the left is difficult for him. He wouldn’t know anything there unless he was told. The pain is under control and almost gone,” said the mother in an Instagram post.
Brianna is expected to make a full recovery.Facebook
The post included photos of the stitches still on the girl’s head, but also images of her playing games and trying to walk with assistance.
“I just want to see little Brianna running around doing her art and always having fun,” her grandmother Chris Breheim told KABC.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
