It was a scary moment for first-time parents Edward and Agata Kaczmarek last April when their 9-month-old son Giovanni took a tumble off of his changing table. In an immediate panic over possible injuries, the couple rushed their little boy to the emergency room for tests.
Little did they know that the fall would turn out to be a life-saving blessing in disguise.
The blond-haired, blue-eyed toddler was given a series of tests, including a CT scan of his head. That scan revealed that he had a golf ball-sized tumor…something that shocked his parents who had seen no symptoms.
Pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Bryan Bertoglio of Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, told CBS Chicago that “if Giovanni hadn’t fallen, he wouldn’t have shown symptoms for quite some time, possibly until it was too late to remove his tumor completely.”
While the diagnosis was devastating, there was reason to hope.
The child needed immediate surgery to remove his tumor, and Dr. Bertoglio recommended a non-invasive approach called BrainPath which allows surgeons to navigate through the folds and fibers of the brain using a small opening the size of a dime.
Giovanni became only the third child in the US to undergo this procedure, created by the Neurosurgical Intervention Company. After the successful surgery, the little boy was able to go home in a matter of days.
Dr. Bertoglio doesn’t think the tumor will return.
Today little Giovanni is an active 17-month old child, busy playing with blocks and preparing to be a big brother to the new baby his parents are expecting.
