Christina Santhouse?s is like most other 14 year olds on the outside but since she was eight she has survived and succeeded without the right side of her brain. It was removed, at Johns Hopkins University Children's Center in Baltimore, because she suffered from a rare and progressive disease called Rasmussen's encephalitis, which caused her to have over 100 seizures a day.
Rasmussen's encephalitis usually occurs in children and will eat away at the brain causing paralysis, loss of mental abilities, and sometimes death.
It is an autoimmune disease, meaning that the body's immune system is tricked into attacking healthy cells, and can be triggered by by a virus or immunological reaction. The only known treatment for this disease is a hemispherectomy, or removal of half of the brain.
"It gradually eats away at one hemisphere like a Pac Man, leaving a very debilitated, very handicapped and quite retarded individual," said Dr. John Freeman, one of Christina's doctors and a pediatric neurologist from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
The procedure left her with many side effects including partial paralysis of her left arm and leg and lost peripheral vision in her left eye, along with the feeling of sloshing fluid in her brain when she jerks her head, but in every other facet she is a normal teenager, with typical memory and intellect.
The disease was first diagnosed as a tiny tumor in her left foot during a family vacation on the New Jersey shore. She was immediately sent to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia where she underwent 3 days of tests before receiving the diagnosis.
"I was there physically," said Christina's mother Lynne Catarro, "but once I heard him say that, I think I mentally left the room."
Christina was given anti-seizure medication, but the tumors continued to worsen and she was transferred to Johns Hopkins, where she received the option of a hemispherectomy.
At first, Christina's mother though the procedure was awful, however, Christina's doctor, Dr. John Freeman, explained, the choice was up to Christina.
"You need to decide when you're ready for the surgery - not your mom, not your grandmother and grandfather. And when you're ready, you call me," Freedman explained to the child.
As time when on, the seizures begin to get progessivly worse, occurring up to 100 times a day. Christian continued her daily routine, almost never missing school, however, she know that should couldn?t live the rest of her life like this.
Christina wrote Dr. Freedman a letter in December 1995, that read, "I'm ready now."
"Younger children are thought to do better than older ones and adults because their brain cells haven't decided what they want to do when they grow up," said Dr. Benjamin Carson, a neurosurgeon who operated on Christina. "Thus, the remaining half of the brain can assume the functions of the lost side," he said.
"I'm just like any other kid," says the shy Christina.
Christina was the 40th operation to have this procedure at Johns Hopkins and since than the hospital has preformed its 100th hemispherectomy.
Christina's operation was a success, leaving her without seizures and medication free for the last 5 years.
Christina is entering her first day of high school at Conwell-Egan Catholic.
"I was nervous about everything," Christina said, but asserted that, "I'm going to enjoy it, always take on a new challenge."
"So far, so good, although classmates don't always know what to say when she tells them about her surgery. They just go, 'Oh, that's nice,'" said Christina.
Her mother, worries about the decision she made to have her daughter undergo the operation.
"I'm waiting for that day when she becomes very angry and blames me for everything," says Catarro, 40. "She's going to hate me."
"I've had some weak moments, when I feel sorry for myself and think I have the worst luck, but this happened for a reason," Christina said. "God only gave it to me because I could handle it.
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