Meet Brodie — Stroke at age 7 months

I had an uneventful pregnancy, and Brodie was born a healthy little boy, hitting all the milestones. We live in Anchorage, Alaska where certain services are at a minimum. We only have one Pediatric Neurologist in the whole state.

On the day Brodie turned seven months old, he had a stroke which was caused by a blood clot. We didn’t know what was going on and rushed him to the ER. While the nurses were trying to get an IV in to give him medicine, he began to have seizures. We ended up in the hospital for a week, during which time the doctors ran numerous tests on our baby.

The end result was that the doctors said Brodie had a perfect storm and there was no known reason for his stroke.
Brodie ended up paralyzed on his left side and continued to suffer from seizures. We had him on seizure medication, and he was in therapy six times a week for OT, PT, and speech. For the next two years we tried to get the seizures under control. He would have more than 300 in a twenty-four hour period. The seizures caused him to have little progress in therapy, and it was an ongoing effort to have Brodie retain what little he had learned as a baby. Finally last spring, we made the tough decision for Brodie to undergo a hemispherectomy to stop his seizures. It was successful in that Brodie is now seizure free. He is also progressing with therapy.

Though Brodie is still unable to really talk, he is walking and doing many things we never thought he would be able to do. Brodie is now three years old and a positive and motivated little boy.