Seizure surgery

By Kelly Yates
Brayden Ackers has had to live with daily seizures that last for up to five minutes, since being diagnosed with refractory epilepsy at the age of three.
His mother Lyn Ackers said her 11-year-old son was the bravest child she knew.
“To endure what he has gone through in the last two weeks and come out the other side with a smile still on his face is just amazing,” she said.
Brayden had two brain surgery operations at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
According to Ms Ackers, the first operation took eight hours.
“The specialist team inserted grids on the surface of both sides of his brain which were left in place for a week so they could monitor the activity in the brain,” she said.
“He had several seizures in this time and he was connected up to monitors and video equipment to try to accurately determine where the seizures were coming from.”
She said during the second surgery, which lasted for 10 hours, doctors removed part of his left temporal lobe where many of the seizures were coming from.
“To watch the anesthetist put your child to sleep is heart-breaking but to have to say goodbye to him at the theatre door at 8am and then not see him again until 6pm when you can hear him crying in pain in the recovery room is absolutely soul-destroying,” Ms Ackers said.
She said her son has had several seizures since the operation.
“We were told this could be expected after major brain surgery but when he wakes up after a seizure and asks “Mum why did I have a seizure, I thought my surgery was going to fix it” your heart just breaks into a hundred pieces,” she said.
For the Ackers family, time will tell if the surgery has been a success.
“We have to give his brain time to heal and settle down and it will probably take from six to 12 months before we can make any kind of judgment,” Mrs Ackers said.