Miracle twin had 300 seizures a day, had half his brain ‘disconnected’

LITTLE Hudson and Mason were miracle twins for their Queensland mums. But when Hudson began suffering 300 seizures a day, they were told he’d be ‘capable of nothing’. But radical surgery to ‘disconnect’ half his brain has worked miracles.

Parents Janelle (left) and Toni Chirio with sons Mason (left) and Hudson in Maryborough. Pic John Wilson

HUDSON Chirio reached out with his foot and poked his twin brother in the back with his outstretched toes.

Mason, huddled on the classroom mat with 20 other kindergarten children, spun around.

“Stop touching me!” he whispered to his brother.

“Oh Mason,” the kindergarten teacher said. “He doesn’t mean it.”

But Hudson’s carer, sitting behind him, knew better. “Don’t annoy your brother,” she said. And Hudson laughed.

For any other children, this interaction may not be worth recounting. But for five-year-old Hudson, a boy who was supposed to be capable of nothing, it’s incredible he is in a classroom at all.

“His prognosis was expect him to do nothing and whatever he does will be a miracle,” his mother Janelle said.

“He would be able to move his eyes and nothing else.”

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Janelle and Toni Chirio had their identical twins via IVF – a rare outcome.

Janelle and Toni Chirio with their five-year-old twin boys Hudson and Mason.

But seconds after Hudson and Mason were born, doctors whisked them away to the intensive care unit.

They were kept in hospital for several weeks before being allowed to go home. And for a couple of months, things seemed normal.

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But when Hudson began having 12-hour long screaming episodes and suddenly went limp down one side of his body, doctors discovered he had suffered a massive stroke.

In fact, doctors would eventually discover both twins had suffered strokes - before they were born.

For Hudson, the consequences were far more severe than for his brother.

He’d lost 75 per cent of the left side of his brain, causing him to have more than 300 seizures a day.

“We cried a lot,” Janelle said.

The twins were miracle babies but then things went drastically wrong.

“And then we thought, you know what? He’s alive. He has a twin brother and he has two strong mums.

“We were determined to do everything we could for him.”

Janelle and Toni were told that Hudson would never walk or talk, he’d never sit or stand or be able to communicate.

And the hundreds of seizures he was having each day would likely kill him.

The seizures were caused by the damage to the left hand side of his brain, so Janelle and Toni were asked to consider a radical procedure.

No doctor in Queensland had performed a hemispherectomy before, but the Chirios were told it was Hudson’s best chance of survival.

The surgery would disconnect one side of Hudson’s brain from the other.

“There’s always got to be a first,” Janelle said.

Hudson had to undergo radical brain surgery.

“They told us he would spend six weeks in rehab after the surgery. But he ended up having a collapsed left lung and they thought he was developing pneumonia.”

Dr Martin Wood, who performed the surgery at Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, said around a dozen people had since undergone the procedure in Queensland but Hudson was his first patient.

“The traditional way is to remove half of the brain,” he said.

“But that can lead to complications because you are left with a significant area of dead space.

“What we did with Hudson was to not actually remove the bad half of the brain, you disconnect it completely. It still receives blood supply but it doesn’t send messages to the body and it doesn’t send messages to the other half of the brain.”

While he still has impairments, Hudson’s quality of life has drastically improved. Pic John Wilson

Dr Wood said conducting the procedure for the first time had him “slightly apprehensive”.

“Doing anything for the first time you worry a little bit about how it will go. But it’s like sitting a driving test – once you get going you forget about it and focus on get the job done,” he said.

He said most parents faced with having such a procedure conducted on their child were desperate for any solution.

“I think the epilepsy has such a big effect on their child the parents are really at the point where they would do anything to try and fix it,” Dr Wood said.

“It’s a very daunting process but it has a very high chance of success.”

Despite this, the surgery was a success and Hudson has not had a seizure since.

Janelle and Toni do not believe their little boy would still be alive had they not agreed to the surgery.

Both boys have Cerebral Palsy and other physical and intellectual delays and Hudson can only walk a few metres at a time.

Hudson has had 15 brain surgeries in his five years of life but despite his many challenges, has developed a cheeky personality both mothers love.

Every day comes with new miracles as Hudson learns to do more and more.

“He’s completely non-verbal but he is not intellectually impaired,” Janelle said.

“If he wants something to eat, he will pull it out and bring it to me to open it up. If he wants to watch something on the iPad, he will bring it over to me.

“We have just started using an app that tracks his eye gaze and we are hopeful he will be able to use that to communicate with us more fully.”

But their latest challenge, as Hudson gets older and bigger, is transport.

Janelle and Toni are raising money for a vehicle that will be able to better carry Hudson and his wheelchair.

The specially modified Kia Carnival will eventually be able to transport Hudson in his wheelchair, meaning Hudson’s mothers won’t need to lift him in and out as he gets heavier.

But the car is only theirs if they can sell 2000 tickets, worth $100 each, through a raffle put on by Fraser Coast charity Rally for a Cause.

First prize is a Toyota LandCruiser worth $96,500.

To buy a ticket, visit: www.raffleforacause.org.au