Groundbreaking treatment at London’s Children’s Hospital gives paediatric patients new lease on life

A Canadian paediatrics first in London A new procedure paediatrics saw a young epilepsy patient go from multiple seizures per day to zero. Marek Sutherland reports.

Through a generous donation by Children’s Health Foundation, Children’s Hospital has invested in state-of-the art paediatric technology to treat kids with epilepsy, a neurological condition that affects approximately one in 100 Canadian Children.

One of those kids is 11-year-old Makayla Douglas, who started suffering from seizures when she was just one year old.

“We would have months where we would be in dire circumstances, having 15 a night, 15 a day,” her mother Jeannie Douglas explained. “We've gone through various meds trying so many different options. Nothing really worked for her, for her entire life. She's basically had one to two seizures a night.”

While initially hesitant to take the surgical route, the increased seizure activity left the Douglass family with few options that would result in a normal life.

Makayla became the first paediatric patient in Canada to receive the new procedure.

“The procedure that we use in Makayla's case is a procedure called radiofrequency thermal coagulation,” said Dr. Andrea Andrade, director of the Paediatric Epilepsy Program at Children’s Hospital at LHSC. “It's a minimally invasive procedure that allowed us to without opening the skull, to burn or cauterize the area that is causing her seizures and then get in control. We do this via electrodes that are placed using our robotic arm that was donated from the Children's Health Foundation.”

The result was astonishing according to Douglass’ parents.

“She went from 15 seizures a night last summer to no seizures. Just being able to function as an adult. I can't see how she would have done it the way she was going. So it's given her a bright future,” Makayla’s father Jeff said.

It’s been six months since the surgery, and Makayla has not suffered a single seizure since. A total of five paediatric patients have undergone the procedure since, and all have seen a decrease in seizure activity.

“I think it's a breakthrough for children's care. We exist as a hospital to provide breakthrough care for children, and its life saving and its life changing,” said Children’s Hospital President Nash Syed.

The radiofrequency thermocoagulation was performed by using the ROSA One Brain, a state-of-the-art robotic arm, which was fully funded through donations to the Children’s Health Foundation. The ROSA is used in minimally invasive, robot assisted surgical procedures for epilepsy patients.