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We.we laughed because she said, "What do you mean I had a [__] stroke?" And we're like, " Yeah, we share your feelings. I don't know how an 11-year- old could have a stroke that's so catastrophic, that massive." Camila Niño was a healthy 11-year-old girl living in Corpus Christi, Texas, until she came down with the flu earlier this year. She got the flu in December. She had influenza A. In January, she had influenza B, but she only had a fever and the usual flu symptoms, so we just cared for her at home. In February, while running in physical education class, Camila became ill.
We just ran around the playground back and forth. And suddenly I remember that I started having this really bad. headache. I'm like here. So she tried to hold on. You know, those mothers standing against the wall in the gym? She tried to walk along the wall, but couldn't. She began to feel weakness on her left side. What happened to you? I was confused. Because I've never felt anything so painful before. A nurse came and started examining her, tried to get her to grab her arms, and she said that on the left side she just couldn't lift her arm. She couldn't shake his hand.
The school called her parents, and her mom contacted her via FaceTime while she was driving to the hospital. She was unconscious, she was nauseous, she was trying to talk to me. She just tells me, "Mom, I'm scared. Something.something's wrong." And it was difficult to understand her because her speech was very slurred. At the hospital, Crystal realized something was wrong with Camila. As soon as we saw her, we realized that something very serious had happened. Her head was turned completely to the right and her eyes were directed to the right.
She was vomiting. She still tries to look at me, but she can't. Very, very vague language. And she can't move anything on the left side of her face. You know, she smiles and you see only the right side of her face lift. The ER doctor keeps asking, "Mom, does she have a history of migraines?" And she doesn't suffer from them. The evening before the stroke, I had a very bad headache. similar to the pain I had during my stroke. The doctors didn't see anything on the CT scan. And at that moment she kept telling us, "My head is bursting with pain." "My head is bursting with
pain." She just kept hitting herself in the head. She was in a lot of pain, so they gave her some morphine. But the headache was so severe that it didn't help her at all. She was admitted to the hospital. A few hours later, the emergency room doctors neurologist comes and finds me. She says, "Your daughter had a massive stroke. She had an ischemic stroke, meaning a complete blockage on both sides of her brain." And then they started emphasizing time, and we heard for the first time: time is the brain. And we're like, "Okay, time is brain. We've been here since 1:35, and you're telling me that, you know, eight hours after symptoms started, now time is brain?"
They called a surgeon to perform a thrombectomy, a procedure to remove the blood clot. And he tells us that she has a complete blockage of her carotid artery. It was 100% blocked. Blood had not been flowing to her brain for the past few hours and they needed to try to remove the clot to restore circulation. I will never forget him telling us that it was, if not the first, then the second most difficult surgery of his career, and he was only able to remove 2/3 of the clot. So every time he went through again, he said, every time I risked making another pass, I risked severing her artery. And he said he made about 15 passes, more than he could afford. But he tried to extract as much as possible to give her a chance.
Leila, is the blood clot still there? No. All your pictures are now normal. There is no more blood clot. Over the next few days, Camille didn't get any better. She was still complaining about that headache. She eventually needed a craniectomy, where doctors had to remove part of her skull because the inflammation was getting worse and her brain was pressing on all sides. The brain needs space to swell and release all that pressure, so she actually spent 3 weeks without part of her skull. After the procedure, doctors gave Camila time to rest and recover under supervision. And the doctors weren't sure what she would look like when she woke up.
She is on a ventilator, and at this point we are told that they do not know how the right hemisphere of her brain will function. We don't know if she will be able to speak. You know, we don't know how things will go. Okay, maybe she won't be able to talk. We do n't know. They pulled out the phone, and the first thing this little girl did was look at her dad. Dad, can you take me to Walmart? Sunny D? And then she asked for Big Reds, and then she asked the neurosurgeon, " Can you give me Flama's?
" And she says, "You can't have Flama's. We need to start with applesauce or ice cubes." And I remember my husband just looking at me and saying, "She, she's still here. She, she's going to be okay." Because she is so small, a stroke seems rare. But the neurologist told Crystal that Camilla had what's called focal cerebral arteriopathy. This is what causes a stroke in a completely healthy child. So, it is caused by post-infectious inflammation. She had the flu in December and then she got the flu in January. They said, "Well, here's the thing. There's so much inflammation in her body, like residual inflammation from some infection. And that's why the vessel in her brain has narrowed and blocked. That's why her body is still trying to pump
blood, but it has nowhere to go, and that's why her entire carotid artery was blocked by a clot." According to neurologist Camilla, strokes in young children are not as rare as people think. The incidence of strokes is about 1 in 20,000 children per year. Parents should be aware of focal cerebral arteriopathy. So, "focal" means in one place, "cerebral" means in the brain, and " arteriopathy" means a problem with an artery. So focal cerebral arteriopathy is a problem in one part of one artery in the brain that causes a stroke or disrupts blood flow. Um, with regard to children, we really think it's probably an inflammatory process. This is due to inflammation. With the flu or COVID, a child with
or after the flu or other infection may begin to show some of the signs of a stroke that we see in adults: weakness on one side, difficulty speaking, sudden vision loss, or balance problems. These are things we should take seriously. Remembering the acronym BE FAST can save lives. B (Balance)-loss of balance. E (Eyes)-this is eyes or vision problems. Weakness or changes in sensation in the face, arm, or leg. And S (Speech) is speech, problems with conversation. And all this means that it's time to call an ambulance. This is where, I believe, parental intuition and common sense are important. And if in doubt, it's often best to just see a doctor. That's why we always say: time is brain.
This is one of those things where the sooner we discover it, the more we can do. Camila is still recovering from her stroke and is experiencing some side effects. Hey, how's your hand? She developed what is called neurogenic stuttering. Before the stroke, she didn't stutter at all. But the brain injury actually causes a breakdown in her speech. It may stay forever, or it may pass over time. She is undergoing various types of therapy at TIRR Memorial Hermann, a rehabilitation and research center. She has already started walking on her own. foot is sinking a little, so she can barely drag it. But this only happens when she is very tired.
Left-sided weakness in the left arm. Therefore, a lot of physical therapy is needed. Camila has returned to school on a modified schedule and hopes to return to sports. After a stroke and three brain surgeries, she returns to school after 2 months. You know, and finishes the year with excellent and good grades. She did just amazingly well. She is simply amazing. The family hopes their story will teach others, because knowing what to look out for can save lives. To spread information about stroke. To give someone a sense of hope that I and my own family were able to get through this. Strokes are not going away.
They will happen, and I hate that kids have to go through that. This is something that radically changes your life. Literally, her life was divided into "before" and "after." The fact that her stroke was caused by the flu-it's important for parents to know that this is a real cause that can lead to such consequences, it's important to know. For Inside Edition Digital, I'm Andrea Swindoll.
