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Haleigh's Story Part 1
February 28, 2009 |
Seven year old Haleigh Vadala loves tae kwon do. But what was a normal practice
session, turned into something extraordinary for this young girl and her family.
Melissa Vadala, Haleigh’s mom, says, “She was at tae kwon do with her brother and
father and she was just standing there walking around, and she had a glass of water
in her hand and she just dropped it. Haleigh recounts what happened next, “My mom
was on her way and she said, ‘Haleigh?! Hello?!’”.
After falling to the ground, Haleigh became unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital.
Dr. Jose Colon, a pediatric neurologist with Lee Memorial Health System treated
Haleigh. “The typical type of seizure that we think of is the kind we are familiar
with where the whole body tenses up and does have some jerking and has, a convulsion,”
says Colon. But in Haleigh’s case, her body was completely still. Her eyes wide
open.
Doctors refer to this as an absence seizure, where the entire brain seizes up. “What
happens is you’ll have a child that many times will just stare out. And it looks
like they’re not paying attention. Their eyes will be open. They can be frequent,
it can happen a hundred times in one day,” says Colon.
This sort of behavior struck a chord with Haleigh’s mother. “Once you think back,
you notice it more, you can see instances where it happens because it can happen
anywhere from one second to be several seconds long and she just kind of zones out
and spaces out.”
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