{"id":7946,"date":"2020-04-02T14:04:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T03:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=7946"},"modified":"2020-04-02T16:12:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T05:12:22","slug":"little-henry-all-smiles-after-brain-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/little-henry-all-smiles-after-brain-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Henry all smiles after brain surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Words:<\/strong> Alanah Frost, Herald Sun<\/p>\n

Photography:<\/strong> Alex Coppel, Herald Sun<\/p>\n

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As 13-month-old Henry Ryswyk snuggles into mum Maren\u2019s arms, it\u2019s hard to miss the scars of what the little boy has been through.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stitches frame his face, from the top of his head to his right ear.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s his big round eyes that hold your gaze \u2014 something Henry has, until now, never been able to do.<\/p>\n

The little fighter, from Sale in East Gippsland, has just made it through the biggest battle of his short life \u2014 an operation known as a hemispherotomy to \u201cdisconnect\u201d half of his brain.<\/p>\n

The right hemisphere, the creative half, has been causing Henry\u2019s tiny body to freeze in focal seizures since he was days old \u2014 sometimes up to 30 times a day. The seizures meant Henry wasn\u2019t able to develop as expected, focus his eyes or learn words.<\/p>\n

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Young Henry Ryswyk, here with mum Maren, recovering at The Royal Children’s Hospital after brain surgery for Epilepsy. Picture: Alex Coppel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\u201cHe had seizures daily \u2014 day and night,\u201d Ms Ryswyk recalls. \u201cHe had his first seizure at home on day three.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d had our first night at home and the next morning it started.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to hospital, Sale hospital. And then we went down to Monash Hospital. They drove him down (in an ambulance) and we had to follow. That was a bit scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Melbourne, doctors diagnosed Henry with a brain malformation disorder called hemimegalencephaly.<\/p>\n

Ms Ryswyk, husband Kase and their eldest son, Leo, 3, were devastated.<\/p>\n

Back home, Ms Ryswyk moved into the spare bedroom with Henry to monitor his seizures during the night.<\/p>\n

At the end of last year, the toddler managed four months without a seizure after his family independently trialled CBD \u2014 or cannabis \u2014 oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe started to develop and started to show his little character coming through,\u201d Ms Ryswyk said.<\/p>\n

But the break was short lived and the shakes reappeared on Henry\u2019s first birthday.<\/p>\n

After months of medications, hospital visits, emergency departments and home care, doctors referred Henry to The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital (RCH), where it was decided it was time to operate.<\/p>\n

A hemispherotomy is where neurosurgeons \u201cdisconnect\u201d one half of the brain but leave it inside the head.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a highly delicate operation and fewer than six are performed at the RCH a year.<\/p>\n

A team of surgeons, nurses and anaesthetists wheeled Henry in for the marathon operation on February 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got a whole team together just to do it on a Saturday,\u201d Ms Ryswyk said. \u201cWe sent him off at 11am \u2026 they started operating at 2pm, and they operated until 11pm.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a nine-hour wait, head neurosurgeon Dr Alison Wray delivered the news: everything had gone to plan.<\/p>\n

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Young Henry Ryswyk, recovering at The Royal Children’s Hospital after brain surgery for Epilepsy. Picture: Alex Coppel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSince then he\u2019s just made progress,\u201d Ms Ryswyk said. \u201cNow he has eye contact, which he\u2019s never ever had before. He follows objects, toys.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe follows us. He eats by himself, he takes a spoon to his mouth. He could never do those things before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry\u2019s neurologist, who consulted with the family before surgery, said the operation had been life changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe operation is a cure,\u201d Dr Simon Harvey said. \u201cWhat our surgeons do is disconnect (one hemisphere) \u2014 so they leave it there but cut all the connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only did we stop his seizures we stopped any electrical activity going into the other side of his brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s cured. He won\u2019t be going in and out of hospital like he was before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The operation left Henry paralysed on his left side, meaning he will have to undergo rehabilitation to regain any control and learn how to use his left side of body. But physiotherapist Tanya Harle said by having the operation at such a young age, he has been given the \u201cbest opportunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is quite a significant road for a kid like Henry,\u201d she said,<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he\u2019s made significant gains since he\u2019s been with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Ryswyk said the youngster now does it all with a smile. \u201cHe\u2019s doing all the right things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Mum Maren and little Henry can\u2019t stop smiling. Picture: Alex Coppel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As 13-month-old Henry Ryswyk snuggles into mum Maren\u2019s arms, it\u2019s hard to miss the scars of what the little boy has been through. The little fighter, from Sale in East Gippsland, has just made it through the biggest battle of his short life \u2014 an operation known as a hemispherotomy to \u201cdisconnect\u201d half of his brain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":7951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8971,7198,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-good-friday-appeal","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7946"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7984,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7946\/revisions\/7984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}