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DeyVaun Williams recalled the feeling in his head as a “stinging, aching feeling.”
His mother, Jean Steele, knew something was seriously wrong with her son during those early morning hours of Oct 10, 2013, in their Williamsport home when he repeatedly yelled out in pain.
“He couldn’t walk right. He asked for a doctor,” she said.
There was a call to his father, Kenneth Williams, and then a series of events involving DeyVaun, 10, being rushed to the Williamsport Regional Medical Center emergency room and soon thereafter flown by helicopter to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.
“He was screaming about his head,” recalled Williams.
Tests revealed DeyVaun was suffering from a ruptured cerebral arteriovenous malformation, otherwise known as an AVM.
Rare, usually fatal, it amounts to an abnormal connection between the arteries and veins.
DeyVaun needed to undergo brain surgery – and fast.
Dr. Tarun Bhalla, a Geisinger Medical Center cerebrovascular and endovascular neurosurgeon, had previously worked on a few patients facing similar dire circumstances.
“We needed first to have the pressure relieved,” he said.
The rupture had caused massive bleeding on the brain.
Bhalla and Dr. Amir Kershenovich, a Geisinger pediatric neurosurgeon, performed procedures, first to reduce the pressure on his brain, then to remove the AVM.
Kershenovich explained that the pressure was caused by hemmoraging, which blocked the natural pathway to the cerebral spinal fluid outflow.
“It got pretty scary,” Bhalla recalled. “He had significant pressure on the brain.”
Relieving the fluid amounted to drilling a hole in the brain and implanting a tube to serve as a drain.
Excising the blood clot came next.
At the same time, surgeons had to be careful that DeyVaun did not bleed to death.
Kershenovich termed it an intense situation requiring quick decision-making on the part of medical professionals.
“It was fortunate to have two experienced people there,” he said. “We could have lost him during surgery.”
Bhalla credited the entire medical team with making the operations successful.
“It’s a team effort,” he said.
People with an abnormal connection between the arteries and veins in the brain are simply believed to be born with it and don’t even know it exists unless the AVM bursts open.
But when that happens, it’s usually too late.
DeyVaun had experienced headaches for some time prior to his AVM rupture, Kershenovich noted.
Often, there are no symptoms prior to it occurring.
An active and athletic child, DeyVaun had always been healthy, according to his parents.
Following his surgical procedures, he remained hospitalized and faced a long road of therapy to regain his balance, even his ability to walk.
By Thanksgiving he was home.
“He couldn’t walk for weeks,” his mother said.
But he slowly got better.
He returned to fifth grade at Lycoming Valley Elementary School in early 2014.
He’s resumed playing sports.
DeyVaun cites baseball, basketball and bike riding as some of his favorite activities.
“He’s definitely a miracle,” his father said.