A 10-year-old girl from Howell, N.J., may owe her life to an experimental laser procedure that “burned” a tumor from deep within the child’s brain.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/10/howell_girl_is_first_child_in.html
The Star-Ledger of Newark wrote a story, headlined “Tackling the ‘Inoperable,’” Friday about Madison Beggs, who is undergoing post-surgical daily radiation treatment and chemotherapy at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson’s brain tumor center.
During the summer Madison was diagnosed with a brain tumor that was so deep in her cranium that regular surgery couldn’t be used to remove it. Instead, she underwent a laser procedure that could safety attack the tumor in the center of her brain stem.
A small hole was made in Madison’s skull, and a fiber-optic wire was moved through her brain, safely bypassing blood vessels, to get to the tumor.
A month after the procedure, the tumor is still gone with no signs of any regrowth yet.
Less than 100 adults in the United States have been treated with the laser ablation surgery, and Madison is the first child to have it, according to The Ledger.
Six hospitals are using the experimental laser treatment on brain tumors.
Let’s see if this technology, already approved by the Food and Drug Adminstration, does indeed turn inoperable, fatal brain tumors into operable ones.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
