3-Month-Old Baby Has Half of His Brain Removed After Suffering 200 Seizures a Day from Rare Disorder

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:GoFundMe

GoFundMe

“Going into the emergency room, really just thinking it was maybe a bad cold or something was hard enough — and then to realize that it was seizures. It was just really scary — a lot of unknowns,” she told the outlet.

After arriving, Jackson was put on medications but nothing would mitigate the seizures. The infant was ultimately transferred via Life Flight to Doernbechers Children’s Hospital in Portland where he was diagnosed with hemispheric megalencephaly and heterotopia.

“This means Jackson has a malformation that caused the left side of his brain to be larger than the right side of his brain. He also has an abnormal grey matter and cysts throughout his brain,” Kenzie Hampton, family member of Kaitlyn, explained on aGoFundMepage created for Jackson. “His seizures continue and differ in severity from long lasting seconds, and some lasting for over 5 minutes.”

Doctors also concluded that Jackson was suffering up to 200 seizures a day.

“In the midst of the newborn days, we didn’t recognize that his right side was a little bit weaker, and that was because the left side of the brain seizing so much, he didn’t really have a lot of control over his right side,” Kaitlyn said, noting that she initially felt “very overwhelmed” with her son’s health emergency.

On July 2, doctors decided it was best for Jackson to undergo ahemispherectomy, in which the left hemisphere of the brain is disconnected from the right and the damaged tissue is removed but some brain tissue is left intact.

Doctors told Kaitlyn that the rare procedure would completely stop Jackson’s seizures that are coming from the left side of his brain and the hope is for the brain to reorganize and develop without any more disruption.

Jackson is now 6 months old and doctors tell Kaitlyn that he is expected to walk when he’s older. However, they believe he could face challenges with immunity and learning. He has therapy daily and his seizures are now down to 11 a day.

Kaitlyn said her son is doing well and she’s hopeful about his future.

source: people.com