Child works for normal life after brain surgery

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- At the edge of the driveway, Zachary Meier shifts his weight to his right leg.

The Savannah school bus rumbles around a bend in the road. The bus rolls to a stop. Zach's father lifts Zachary up the stairs.

This is Zach's second first day of school; his second time heading off to kindergarten.

But it's the first day of his new start. The first day his parents can watch him leave for school knowing he won't have a seizure.

Zach's parents, Mary Lou and Jason Meier, then living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, didn't expect Zachary's first seizure. Jason simply went to wake the then-16-month-old and found him jerking, drooling and unconscious.

Mary Lou, an occupational therapist, recognized his seizure symptoms and told her husband to call 911.

Paramedics rushed Zach to a hospital and then flew him to the University of Iowa Medical Center. Doctors revived the doe-eyed boy, but didn't give the Meiers an official diagnosis.

Their family doctor in Cedar Rapids told them about a week later: Zachary would continue to have seizures. More specifically, the doctor diagnosed the toddler with a rare form of epilepsy known as a neuronal migration disorder.

The disorder actually begins in the womb, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. In basic terms, it's caused when neurons don't settle in the right places while the brain is developing.

Zachary wouldn't have another seizure for about a year. In between them, Zachary grew up, and the family moved to Missouri.

In late 2005, Mary Lou found her son face-down in vomit. She performed CPR to get her son to start breathing again.

"We just felt so helpless," she said. "We were waiting, watching -- all the time."

A few months later, the Meiers conveyed their sense of helplessness and fear to Zach's doctor at Children's Mercy Hospital, and they agreed that something needed to be done. The doctor told them that brain surgery might be an option for Zach.

Eventually, tests revealed that the entire right side of Zach's brain was affected by the seizures, and his parents decided to consider an anatomical hemispherectomy, or the removal of the entire right side of Zach's brain.

Doctors told the Meiers that everything from Zach's ability to walk to his memory might be affected by the surgery. He would need to relearn how to use the left side of his body.

They expected it would be months before he would walk.

But in the days after surgery, Zach showed everyone what a fighter he would be.

Within 10 days of surgery, Zachary was walking with hand-held support.

At The Rehabilitation Institute of Kansas City, the health care professionals working with Zach said his progress has been phenomenal.

By the summer of 2007, he could jog through the hallways, talking excitedly.

"I didn't think coming here initially that he'd make this kind of progress," said Rachel McGraw, one of Zach's physical therapists at the institute. "I've been amazed."