Pediatric Neurosurgery Story Book:

(Acrobat pdf version)

Pediatric & Developmental Neurosurgery Center:

clinical
profiles

“Callie was in bad shape when she was admitted to the pediatric ICU at MassGeneral Hospital for Children. I come from a very large family and they all live nearby. That night, the staff let the whole family into the ICU since no one knew what was going to happen to Callie… My mother just kept telling the doctors that they must have made a mistake… everyone was so patient with her and all of us. The entire team talked openly with us every day… I just knew Callie was in the hands of people who treated her case so personally… that whatever the outcome, Callie’s father, Dan and I had made the right decision…we could sense the compassion and the level of caring… Dan and I needed that life-line relationship.”

excerpts from an interview with Callie’s mother

“I did have some fun during this experience… I got to go in the Bruin’s locker room after a game and asked the players to sign my head with a permanent marker. The next day was Halloween and I had to go to Mass General for chemotherapy. We went trick or treating in the hospital and I went as an autograph book.”

excerpts from Alex’s autobiography

Alex. Alex presented at age 8 with 3
months of progressively intense nausea
and vomiting. Evaluation by blood test,
abdominal CT, and endoscopy of his
gastrointestinal tract however showed
no abnormality. However when he
developed headaches his doctors ordered a head CT scan, followed by an MRI. These studies showed a large tumor in the IVth ventricle, causing compression on neurological vomiting centers of the brainstem. His doctors then referred him to the Pediatric Neurooncology Center at MassGeneral Hospital for Children.

Sam. Sam presented at age 16 with vomiting for two weeks. He was admitted to North Shore Children’s Hospital where his pediatrician realized that this was something more than the usual gastrointestinal illness. A CT scan revealed a tumor in the back part of his brain (cerebellum) that would require surgery. He was transferred to the MassGeneral Hospital for Children where multiple MR scans showed that this was his only tumor. The next day he underwent 8 hours of surgery. There was no visible tumor at the end of the surgery and none on the MR scan that was performed the next day. He was discharged 5 days following surgery and returned to school within the week. Unfortunately, the pathologic/microscopic examination of the tumor showed that it is a type that has a high risk of recurrence so that additional radiation therapy and chemotherapy will be needed to reduce his risk of recurrence.