Children's Hospital

CBS4 Kids: Nichole's Successful Brain Surgery

BOSTON (CBS4) ― Imagine the terror you'd feel if you learned your child had a life threatening brain tumor. Thanks to the expertise at Children's Hospital Boston, and a new, state of the art piece of equipment, a local family is getting through that terrible diagnosis.

"I knew something was wrong when I kept throwing up in class during school," says 13 year-old Nichole Paone.

It was a non-cancerous tumor the size of a baseball pushing on her brain. She needed surgery right away.

To be sure they removed the entire tumor, Children's Hospital surgeons used a new and very impressive piece of equipment called the "MR-OR." It's a 15,000 pound magnet that can "image" the brain before, during and after surgery.

Children's is the only pediatric hospital in North American to have one. "It allows us to actually take an MRI while the patient is asleep," says Dr. Liliana Goumnerova, the surgeon who operated on Nichole.

In the past doctors would have to wait a few days after surgery before checking their work with a traditional MRI, but with the new equipment right in the operating room they can do it immediately. The pictures showed them that they removed the whole tumor.

According to Dr. Goumnerova, "This is a tremendous advancement for us. It's really probably going to make a difference for the management of a lot of children with brain tumors."

Three months after surgery, Nichole returned to Children's for an MRI checkup that showed she's doing just fine. Her mother, Michele, believes coming to Children's Hospital was being in the right place at the right time. "They have everything you need here. They have specialists for everything."

Nichole says she wasn't afraid to have the surgery because she had been to Children's Hospital Boston before, and knew they would take good care of her.

Every month here on CBS4Boston.com, we continue to showcase the life-saving work that goes on at the hospital.

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