Even Unborn Babies Have Strokes

May 2010 was a whirlwind month for our family. My twin eight month old girls tested for developmental delays. Before I could even take a deep breath, Sierra’s doctors were scheduling an MRI, an EEG, a heart ultrasound and extensive blood work.

I can still remember sitting with my sister in the neurologist’s office just days before my older daughter was to turn two years old, looking at the MRI of Sierra’s brain that showed a massive stroke had occurred and damaged the left side of her brain.  Her neurologist explained that the MRI report noted “a remote prenatal infarction to the left hemisphere involving left middle cerebral artery distribution, so primarily left frontal and temporal lobes.”   My baby had a stroke before she was born.  Until that day, I did not know that this could happen to an unborn child.

I was later told by the neurologist that Sierra’s primary diagnosis was hemiplegic cerebral palsy.  I believe it has taken me a couple of years to digest this information.  One of the most amazing and wonderful things I have learned from all of this, is that the human brain is able to re-wire itself and in a young child it is easier than in an adult.

Sierra continues to amaze and delight me with the things she accomplishes each and every day.  I can’t wait to see what she does today.