Brain surgery | Elizabeth’s new life

A 3-year-old girl’s life has been transformed by a delicate brain operation. A dark future awaited him. Instead, there she is laughing, babbling and walking everywhere. Here is his story.

The first time the D^r Aris Hadjinicolaou saw Elizabeth, she was not smiling, she was not speaking, she was not moving, she was not making eye contact. “The parents had lost their daughter,” summarizes the neurologist.

Élizabeth Gosselin will be 3 years old the day after Christmas. She is a talkative, smiling and extremely charismatic little girl. While her mother tells us about the roller coaster that her short life has been – “she has experienced more than the rest of the family” – the little one goes back and forth on her walker in a corridor of the Sainte-Justine hospital babbling. “Grandma! Mom ! THANKS ! Welcome ! »

Nothing to do with the child described by the D^r Hadjinicolaou.

Élizabeth was born prematurely on December 26, 2020 after a “perfect” pregnancy, says her mother, Laurianne Taillefer-Bilodeau. At Saint-Eustache hospital, doctors found that the little girl’s intestines were outside her abdomen. She was transferred to the Sainte-Justine hospital center in Montreal for surgery. Until then, there was nothing to suggest another problem. It was during post-operative tests that the medical team realized something was wrong.

The baby had spots on his brain. Diagnosis: perinatal stroke. At the time, the parents did not understand the extent of the situation.

Strokes, which occur when an artery in the brain is ruptured or blocked, are not that rare in newborns, explains Dr.^r Hadjinicolaou. In fact, it is in the first 24 hours of life that a human being is most likely to suffer from it. But often, the doctor specifies, the after-effects are mild.

When she left the hospital, more than two months after Elizabeth’s birth, the family didn’t really know what to expect. “They told us that her left side was semi-paralyzed. They didn’t know if it was going to work. They also warned us that she might have epilepsy. »

Dizziness

Laurianne was at home when she noticed that Elizabeth’s eyes were “going backwards” for a few seconds. “Then the arm started to follow. Then it was the leg. » The little girl began to have 20 seizures a day. A perpetual storm in his brain whose consequences were extremely serious went so far as to lead to motor, social and verbal regression. “If we don’t treat, there can be irreversible effects,” explains Dr.^r Hadjinicolaou.

This is what was happening to his patient when he met her about a year ago. The little one had tried several medications, but nothing worked.

Not only did the crises prevent her from progressing, they also set her back. A life without social contacts, without communication, verbal or not, without the ability to move or make voluntary movements awaited him.

At home, things were particularly difficult, says her mother, who had to resign from her job to take care of her daughter. “I’ve had my ups and downs, but I’ve been down a lot. »

The D^r Hadjinicolaou then spoke to the family about an intervention as rare as it was stunning: a hemispherectomy. Simply put, he proposed disconnecting the right half of the brain, the one that suffered the stroke and was causing the epileptic seizures. There are around ten of this type of intervention per year throughout Quebec, almost always on children, whose brain plasticity allows for better recovery.

Laurianne remembers the dizziness she felt. His mother, Grayce Bilodeau, had the same feeling. The grandmother accompanies her daughter and granddaughter to all medical appointments. “We were afraid she would die,” she whispers.

On October 16, the Gosselin-Taillefer-Bilodeaus arrived in Sainte-Justine at dawn. Laurianne will never forget the image of her daughter walking away in the arms of a nurse towards the operating room.

Nor that, more than 12 hours later, of Elizabeth so small in her bed, plugged everywhere, a drain coming out of her head.

Nearly thirty caregivers participated, directly or indirectly, in the intervention, coordinated by D^r Hadjinicolaou and his neurosurgeon colleague Alexander Weil.

Hope

Two months later, the progress is impressive. “It’s another little girl,” said her grandmother Grayce.

The day before the interview, the toddler had stood up alone on her right leg, on the sofa. A huge victory. She moves in a walker, pushing with this same leg.

She says thank you when we give her something, and insists that we say “welcome” when she thanks us. Better yet, she started combining two words to express herself.

She also started to raise her left arm, which she didn’t do before.

She no longer has spasms.

But above all, she gained a lightness that she did not have before. “She couldn’t tell us, but with all her crises, she really must not have been well,” believes Laurianne.

How far can she progress? ” It’s hard to say. She lived with after-effects for several years, answers the D^r Hadjinicolaou. But she has a family that gives 1000%. They do everything possible. Then it will be able to reach its maximum development potential. »

“Laurianne is so dedicated,” adds Grayce Bilodeau. She sacrifices everything for her daughter. »

Élizabeth is followed in speech therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, neuropsychology, special education and neurology. Just to name that.

The little girl is already astonishing. She would have lost a complete visual field after the operation, with the two halves of the brain each responsible for part of vision. That didn’t happen. The function had probably migrated into the healthy half. ” When [un AVC] happens so early in life, things move around in the brain,” explains the treating neurologist.

For the family, there is hope.

His mother wishes her “Elijah” to walk. “But most of all, I want his life to be easy. »

What her grandmother hopes is “that differences continue to be highlighted” in society so that her granddaughter is not stigmatized. “She’s going to go to school. We know that children can be mean. I notice that even adults look at her differently when we go out, when we go to a restaurant. We are worried,” said M.^me Bilodeau.

She adds: “I’m proud of where she’s gotten. »