Brain disorder girl back at school after surgery

Maryam Ali, 12, who was suffering a rare brain disorder that left her paralysed has returned to school after surgeons removed a tennis ball-sized lump from her head.

Maryam Ali, 12, is in fine spirits with her father Ali Abdullah Saeed at their home in Sharjah yesterday.

SHARJAH // A little girl with a rare and paralysing brain disorder returned to school yesterday after surgeons removed a lump the size of a tennis ball from her head.

When Maryam Ali, 12, went to bed one night last month she seemed perfectly normal. The next morning she awoke unable to walk or talk and could not move the left side of her body.

Her parents called an ambulance, telling emergency workers they thought their daughter was dying.

By the time Maryam arrived at the emergency department the paralysis had spread throughout her body, said Dr Sathish Krishnan, a consultant neurosurgeon at Al Qassimi Hospital.

Dr Sathish said Maryam was suffering from a congenital blood vessel abnormality that caused her brain to bleed and formed a cavernoma, a lumpy cluster of abnormal blood vessels, in her head.

Doctors removed the cavernoma during a five-hour surgery performed under a microscope last Monday and say she is recovering well. But Maryam, a Grade 6 pupil, will need physical rehabilitation and up to a year of speech therapy before she is fully back to normal.

Maryam’s father, Ali Abdullah Saeed, thanked the hospital staff.

The father of four girls and two boys said Maryam had been excelling at Al Istiqlal Private School before her illness and returned yesterday to take exams.

“God is great. She survived the operation and is now catching up with her life,” Mr Saeed said.

While Maryam’s disorder was rare, Dr Krishnan said blood-vessel abnormalities were more widespread than many realised. He said the hospital had recently treated 22 cases of varying severity.

“There was also another case of a Bangladeshi who complained of a severe headache and vomiting,” Dr Krishnan said.

“When he was referred to us we found he also had an abnormality in the blood vessels.”

The patient also had bleeding in the brain, but his case differed as he was suffering from an arteriovenous malformation – an abnormal connection between his veins and arteries. He has undergone two surgeries and his situation has normalised, Dr Krishnan said.