Published at 2:17 am. Updated at 5:00 am.
As Dr. When Aris Hadjinicolaou saw Elizabeth for the first time, she didn't smile, she didn't speak, she didn't move, she didn't make eye contact. “The parents had lost their daughter,” summarizes the neurologist.
Élizabeth Gosselin turns 3 the day after Christmas. She is a talkative, smiling and extremely charismatic little girl. While her mother tells us about the roller coaster ride of her short life – “she has experienced more than the rest of the family” – the little one walks back and forth on her walker through a hallway of the Sainte-Justine Hospital, chattering. “Grandma! Mom! THANK YOU! Welcome! »
Has nothing to do with Dr. Hadjinicolaou described child to do.
Élizabeth was born prematurely on December 26, 2020 after a “perfect” pregnancy, says her mother Laurianne Taillefer-Bilodeau. At the Saint-Eustache hospital, doctors discovered that the little girl's intestines were outside her stomach. She was transferred to Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montreal for surgery. Until then, nothing indicated any other problem. During post-operative testing, the medical team realized something was wrong.
The baby had spots on his brain. Diagnosis: perinatal stroke. At this point, the parents did not realize the extent of the situation.
Strokes, which occur when an artery in the brain ruptures or becomes blocked, are not that rare in newborns, says Dr. Hadjinicolaou. In fact, the first 24 hours of life are when a person is most likely to suffer from it. But often, the doctor explains, the after-effects are mild.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Laurianne Taillefer-Bilodeau watches her little Élizabeth having fun in a corridor of the Sainte-Justine hospital.
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 would work. They also warned us that she might have epilepsy. »
dizziness
Laurianne was at home when she noticed Elizabeth's eyes “wandering backwards” for a few seconds. “Then the arm started following. Then it was the leg. » The little girl was having 20 seizures a day. A constant storm in his brain, the consequences of which were extremely serious, went so far as to cause motor, social and verbal regression. “If we don’t treat, irreversible consequences can occur,” explains Dr. Hadjinicolaou.
This happened to his patient when he met her about a year ago. The little one had tried several medications, but nothing helped.
The crises not only prevented them from moving forward, they also set them back. A life awaited him without social contacts, without communication, whether verbal or not, without the ability to move or carry out voluntary movements.
Things were particularly difficult at home, says her mother, who had to give up her job to look after her daughter. “I had my ups and downs, but I was also often down. »
Afterwards Dr. Hadjinicolaou with the family about a rare and breathtaking procedure: a hemispherectomy. Simply put, he suggested cutting off the right hemisphere of the brain that had suffered the stroke and caused the epileptic seizures. About ten procedures of this type are carried out across Quebec each year, 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 doctor's appointments. “We were afraid she would die,” she whispers.
On October 16, the Gosselin-Taillefer-Bilodeaus arrived at Sainte-Justine at dawn. Laurianne will never forget the image of her daughter walking towards the operating room in the arms of a nurse.
Nor that more than 12 hours later, Elizabeth was lying so small in her bed, stuffed everywhere and a drain leaking out of her head.
The procedure carried out by Dr. Hadjinicolaou and his neurosurgical colleague Alexander Weil, almost thirty nurses were directly or indirectly involved.
Hope
Two months later, the progress is impressive. “It’s another little girl,” said her grandmother Grayce.
The day before the interview, the toddler was standing alone on the sofa on his right leg. A huge victory. She moves in a walker and pushes with the same leg.
She thanks us 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 began raising her left arm, something she hadn't done before.
She no longer has cramps.
But above all, she gained a lightness that she didn't have before. “She couldn’t tell us, but with all her crises, she must have been really unwell,” believes Laurianne.
How far can she go? ” It's difficult to say. She has lived with aftereffects for several years, answers Dr. Hadjinicolaou. But she has a family that gives 1000%. They do everything possible. Then it can reach its maximum development potential. »
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Élizabeth with her mother Laurianne and her grandmother Grayce Bilodeau
“Laurianne is so dedicated,” adds Grayce Bilodeau. She sacrifices everything for her daughter. »
Élizabeth is cared for in the areas of speech therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, neuropsychology, special education and neurology. Just to name that.
The little girl is already amazing. After the operation, she would have lost her entire field of vision, with the two hemispheres of the brain each being responsible for part of her vision. That didn't happen. The function had probably migrated to the healthy half. ” When [un AVC] “This happens so early in life that things start moving in the brain,” explains the treating neurologist.
There is hope for the family.
His mother wants her “Elia” to go. “But most of all, I want his life to be easy. »
Her grandmother would like “differences to continue to be highlighted in society” so that her granddaughter is not stigmatized. “She will go to school. We know kids can be mean. I notice that even adults look at them differently when we go out, when we go to a restaurant. We are concerned,” Ms. Bilodeau said.
She added: “I am proud of what she has achieved. »
Learn more
1 in 2,300 In Canada, 1 in 2,300 newborns will have a stroke. This means that 200 to 300 Canadian children are affected each year.
Source: Heart and Stroke Foundation