A week after undergoing major brain surgery, little Samuel Méthot impresses the doctors with his rapid recovery, so much so that he is already back home.
• Read also: Major brain surgery: little Samuel on the road to recovery
• Read also: Rare Brain Surgery Could Cure Boy With Epilepsy
The boy with severe epilepsy was initially to be hospitalized 11 days after his delicate neurosurgical intervention.
He will finally have remained in the hospital eight days.
“He surprised the doctors and the neurologist,” says his mother, Meggie Perron, relieved to finally be back home with her son.
“He is fine”
He has started to walk again and his facial expressions, one of his communication tools, are more and more present, underlines Mme Perron.
“He’s fine, I’m happy. I have hope,” she said.
What’s more, the 9-year-old boy hasn’t had any seizures since his operation. “Excellent” news, says his mother.
Photo DIDIER DEBUSSCHÈRE
“Less on the alert”
Calmer, Samuel also now has a “more sustained” look, says Mme Perron.
“Before, he deviated a lot of his gaze, often changed position, moved a lot. I find that since the operation, he seems more relaxed, less on the alert”, she explains.
On Friday, Samuel even sketched a first smile since his operation, to the delight of his mother. “I was expecting it!” did she say.
Even if his brain now processes information in a completely different way, he should be able to return to the benches of the specialized school Madeleine-Bergeron, within two weeks, says his mother.
Very rare operation
On Wednesday last week, Samuel underwent a callosotomy at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, a very rare operation that has only been performed there three times in the last ten years.
This aims to cut the corpus callosum which connects the two hemispheres of the brain.
The objective is to reduce the number and intensity of seizures, in addition to allowing the electrical activity in the brain to be limited.
20 to 50 seizures per day
During his first years of life, he lived from 20 to 50 seizures a day, causing him violent projections forward.
More recently, Samuel was the victim of at least one attack a week, but “very intense”.
This could sometimes stretch over a period of 48 hours, which required emergency hospitalization, says his mother.
An intervention of more than 8 hours
- February 22: Samuel Méthot undergoes a rare brain procedure, called a callosotomy, at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. The operation lasts more than 8 hours.
- February 23: Samuel leaves intensive care.
- February 24: He responds well to his operation. It avoids postoperative complications.
- March 2: Samuel is back home.