Community Corner

After Brain Surgery, Utica Siblings Hope to Live Pain Free

Zoey and Parker VanBaak, of Utica, have surgery at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak to treat a serious neurological disorder.

Last week, Kim and Aaron VanBaak, of Utica, bore the difficult mission of bringing not one, but two of their children to Beaumont Hospital to have brain surgeries.

“We didn’t want to choose who would get to go first to relieve their pain,” said Kim VanBaak, so the surgeries were performed one right after another by Dr. Holly Gilmer, medical director of pediatric neurosurgery.

Zoey VanBaak, 7, and her brother Parker, 4, were born with chiari malformation, a serious neurological disorder where the bottom part of the brain, the cerebellum, descends out of the skull and crowds the spinal cord, putting pressure on both brain and spine.

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Zoey suffers arm and leg pain so intense that by most evenings she is unable to make it up a flight of stairs, while Parker has severe headaches and eye pain.

“He was born with it and he was suffering. He just didn’t know how to tell us," Kim VanBaak said.

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At around age 3, the VanBaak’s noticed Zoey had difficulty with gross and fine motors skills and her speech.

“Everyone just said basically, ‘She’ll grow out of it. It’s no big deal,’” Kim VanBaak said. After Parker was diagnosed with chiari, Zoey was tested and it was discovered she had the malformation, too.

It’s unknown whether or not genetics or environmental factors are the cause of the disorder. A third child, Gracie Claire VanBaak, 6, does not have the defect.

“In the 1980s, it was believed from autopsies that about up to 20 percent of the population actually has the malformation and they live most of their lives without symptoms,” said Sonja Young, neuroscience clinic coordinator at Beaumont.

There is no cure for chiari, only treatment

Friday, Gilmer performed surgery on the children to make more room in the backs of their heads by removing small pieces of skull bones. After spending the weekend recovering, both children were discharged Monday.

“The surgery was very successful,” Young said. “Dr. Gilmer said everything went as expected. There were no setbacks. They were up and around and playing before they went home.”

In approximately three weeks, Zoey and Parker will return for a follow up visit with Gilmer and if all goes well they will be cleared to return to Flickinger and Crissman elementary schools in Utica. 

“School will be therapeutic,” Young said. “At their age they want nothing more than to be normal.”

“We just want our kids to heal and move on and live their lives pain free,” Kim VanBaak said.


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