Support Islas second brain surgery

On behalf of my daughter Karissa and her family I am reaching out for your help and support

Karissa’s daughter Isla is scheduled to undergo a second major brain surgery, which requires them to travel interstate.

With all of that going on Islas mum is also having to give birth to her son a week prior to flying out to Melbourne with her partner Shaun and youngest daughter Tilly, so she can be there with Isla during this time.

With both Karissa and Shaun taking time away from work and home, the expense of accommodation, food, travel is added stress on them that no family should have to worry about during such a emotional and stressful time.

We are asking for your support and help in anyway you can.

Unfortunately the bills at home don’t stop and with the long recovery time - even after returning home - the road ahead with Isla's recovery is unknown.

Isla was diagnosed with a rare brain disease in April 2020 and in September 2020 she had a functional hemispherectomy (disconnection of the R/H hemisphere of her brain). The surgery was a successful procedure however, earlier in April this year they noticed Isla was experiencing some unexpected head pain, obviously with her complex medical history they couldn't take any risks and they continually rushed her to hospital to seek answers. The Royals Children's Hospital in Melbourne soon took charge and requested some testing. Since May Isla has had 4 EEG's, an MRI and two IV steroid pulse treatments. Isla was also placed on Topiramate (an anticonvulsant/migraine medication).

The seizure activity on the disconnected hemisphere is the root cause to this pain, one of Isla's EEG's showed 55 seizures in two hours... Although her right hemisphere is fully disconnected and Isla doesn't show any seizure symptoms, the problem is that the rampant seizure activity on her disconnected side is messing with the chemical balance in Isla's brain which is then causing her to experience these 'migraines' and pain which is effecting her day to day life. Unfortunately, there is no way to minimise Isla's seizure activity as she has drug resistant epilepsy.

After all the data was collected and some informative consultations they have been advised that Isla requires further surgery. They have recently got date of the 31st October 2023 where Isla will undergo a second major brain surgery to completely remove her right hemisphere. Her first surgery was 13 hours, according to the doctors this surgery will be longer due to existing scar tissue and the incision will need to be bigger to allow for removal of tissue. Theoretically this procedure will eliminate any remaining seizure activity and in turn eliminate any migraines she is currently experiencing.

Isla has had two of the rarest conditions you could possibly think of and both conditions have had solutions so they are thinking positively and feeling lucky that Isla has access to some of the best medical teams in the world.

Isla is the strongest little princess !

Please keep Isla and her family in your thoughts & any help is appreciated