Glue to the Rescue
By: Gwyn Bevel
Updated: March 14, 2013
Blood was rushing in and it couldn't get out.
That's what was happening inside one little girl's brain, but by the time doctors found out what was wrong, it was almost too late.
It's painful for Mark Lackey to talk about the time he almost lost his daughter Lauren.
Lauren Lackey went into a coma and says, "I kinda felt it, but I couldn't explain it."
Her mom says one night while doing homework.
Two days later, Lauren slipped into a coma. The blood flow out of her brain was mostly blocked, forced through a single channel below the surface of her face. Doctor Roc Chen says it's like...
Dr. P. Roc Chen says, "Eight laned highway driving through one lane."
On top of that, abnormal connections between vessels created short circuits in her brain. The two problems caused severe swelling that could kill Lauren, but open brain surgery could lead to a deadly bleed. So, Doctor Chen snaked a catheter from her groin to her head and with glue that's sometimes used to help stop brain aneurysms from rupturing, he carefully sealed off the short circuits.
Dr. Chen: "Black lines indicate the glue is going in."
After the treatment, Lauren's brain pressure started going down right away.
Lackey: "I felt really good. I felt normal."
Back to normal and back with the ones who love her."She's our little miracle child."
It took two five-hour treatments to seal off the short circuits in Lauren's head. Meanwhile, Doctor Chen says the blood from her brain still drains through the vessel in her face, but with blood thinners he says she can expect to have a normal quality of life.
