Emily Pesina is like most 16 year olds.
She attends Monterey High School and her favorite class is PE but Emily’s journey to this point is just a little different that her classmates.
“She’s a miracle,” said Phillip Pesina, Emily’s father. “Emily was two and a half when she had her first seizure and that spanned six or eight months. That one seizure turned into about 400 a day.”
Emily was diagnosed with Rasmussen’s Syndrome and at three and a half years old her parents made the decision to have a hemispherectomy, which is a very rare surgical procedure where one cerebral hemisphere is removed or disabled.
“To save her life, save her quality of life the doctor went in and basically severed the hemispheres of their brain,” said Alison Chapa, pediatric occupational therapist at Covenant Health System.
“The surgeon said if you’re a praying man it’s time to pray,” said Phillip Pesina. “She has a 50/50 chance to survive.”
Not only did Emily survive, she thrived.
“When you see this happen, typically the children aren’t expected to walk or talk,” said Chapa. “We didn’t know what to expect.”
With the help of Chapa at Covenant’s NeuroScience Institute, Emily was able to get back on her feet just four months after the surgery.
“That was amazing,” said Phillip Pesina. “By the time we visited with her doctors in Houston again she was walking. They were pleased and surprised that she could do that. She had also recovered a lot of her speech.”
Emily and Alison continue to work and grow together.
“Alison is awesome,” said Emily Pesina.
