Casey Brookhyser has made a career of protecting others while serving in the Army. But all that training couldn’t prepare her for protecting her daughter Natalie from the tumor growing inside 19-month-old’s brain.

Natalie had a rare tumor growing above the area of the brain that controls motor skills. The family from Ft. Campbell, Ky., called neurosurgeons all over the country after a physician at another children’s hospital left them with little hope. Casey says the signs were clear what the next steps would be.

“Everyone said you need to go see Dr. [Frederick] Boop at Le Bonheur,” she said.

Casey felt right at home immediately at Le Bonheur. She raves about the team of doctors and nurses who gave her hope again, including neurologist Dr. Amy McGregor. “I trusted her from the beginning. She would stay till 10 or 11 at night to try to find the right medicine combination for Natalie’s irritability, seizures, not eating,” Casey said.

During an interview with WREG Channel 3 on May 9, little Natalie took her first steps since the three surgeries to remove the tumor and control her seizures. The moment caught on camera, brought Casey to tears. “I am happy. I think once I get her home, she’ll be on the road to recovery,” Casey said.

The Brookhyser’s story about receiving care at Le Bonheur’s Neuroscience Institute is just one of many that have been captured in print and photographs, or on television recently.

Commercial Appeal reporter Mary Powers and photographer Karen Focht spent a week at the hospital following neurosurgeons Dr. Rick Boop and Dr. Alex Sanford of the nation’s busiest surgical brain tumor program. The stories also focus on three patients and their families from Arizona, Virginia and Memphis as they undergo this difficult journey. The three-part series, “The Last Best Hope” appeared in the newspaper April 30, 31 and May 1. The entire series includes a slideshow with audio interviews with the doctors.

The PBS show Healthy Body, Healthy Mind featured Dr. James Wheless, the director of the Neuroscience Institute. He shared how groundbreaking technology is revealing the true nature of epilepsy, a brain disorder that affects more than one percent of the population.
 
In the spring issue of Memphis Business Quarterly, a story “Brain Matters” focuses on a 2 year-old from Connecticut whose family brought her to Le Bonheur after another neurosurgeon was unable to remove all of the tumor growing in her brain. The article also discusses the innovative techniques used by neurologist Dr. James Wheless in hard-to-treat epilepsy cases. Wheless is the chair of the Neuroscience Institute at Le Bonheur. A new diagnostic imaging tool, a magnetocephalography (MEG) laboratory, will be available at the hospital this summer to perform functional mapping of the eloquent cortices (hearing, sensory, motor, language and vision) in patients.

An article in the February issue of Memphis Parent provides an overview of epilepsy. Neurologist Dr. Dave Clarke explains warning signs and misconceptions of seizures. The article encourages parents that epilepsy is treatable and can be controlled.

All of the stories are available at by clicking here.