An Oregon baby has undergone surgery to remove half of his brain because of a rare disorder and seizures.
Jackson Williamson was only 3 months old when he started suffering from seizures. They had been constant since June 18, his mother Kaitlyn Williamson told KTVZ, so she took him to a hospital in Bend, Oregon.
“Going to the emergency room, actually just thinking it might be a bad cold or something bad enough – and then realizing it was seizures. It was really scary – a lot of unknowns,” she told the news outlet.
Once he arrived, Jackson was given medication, but nothing could ease the seizures. The infant was eventually transferred via Life Flight to Doernbechers Children’s Hospital in Portland, where he was diagnosed with hemispheric megalencephaly and heterotopia.
“This means that Jackson has a malformation that causes the left side of his brain to be larger than the right side of his brain. He also has abnormal gray matter and brain cysts,” Kenzie Hampton, a member of Kaitlyn’s family, explained on a GoFundMe page created for Jackson. “His seizures continue and vary in severity from prolonged seconds, with some lasting over 5 minutes.”
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Doctors also concluded that Jackson was having up to 200 seizures a day.
“In the middle of the newborn days, we didn’t recognize that his right side was a little weaker, and that was because the left side of his brain was spasming so much, he didn’t have a lot of control over his right side,” Kaitlyn said, noting that at first she felt “very overwhelmed” by her son’s medical emergency.
On July 2, doctors decided it was best for Jackson to undergo a hemispherectomy, in which the left hemisphere of the brain is separated from the right and the damaged tissue is removed, but some brain tissue remains intact.
Doctors told Kaitlyn that the rare procedure will completely stop Jackson’s seizures coming from the left side of the brain and they hope the brain will reorganize and develop without any interference.
“Going into surgery, the doctors explained to us that he would most likely be paralyzed on the entire right side of his body after the procedure,” Hampton wrote the day after the surgery. “Jackson started moving both legs today. This means that Jax was born this way and that the right side of his brain has already learned how to compensate. This is truly the best news for a boy!”
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Jackson is now 6 months old and doctors tell Kaitlyn that he is expected to walk when he grows up. However, they believe he could face challenges with immunity and learning. He receives therapy every day and his seizures are now down to 11 a day.
“Now he’s opening his fist more on the right side. He’s getting strength in his right leg. It’s all about movement,” Cally Hampton, Jackson’s grandmother, told KTVZ. “He’s sitting almost by himself – done. And that comes from getting strength in his spine, hips and neck.”
Kaitlyn said her son is doing well and is hopeful for his future.
“He’s such a happy baby. He’s very social. He loves people. He loves making friends. When he’s smiling, it doesn’t seem to stop,” she said.
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Source: HIS Education