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Bayside ‘village’ rallies around
young girl on journey to recovery
BY JENNA BACAL
Since she was 5
months old, Bayside
resident Anna
Palmieri, now 12, has
dealt with frontal lobe
cortical dysplasia,
a common form of
epilepsy in which the
top layer of the brain
does not form properly.
According to her
father, Marc Palmieri,
this caused Anna to
have thousands of
seizures when she
was asleep that he
described as 90 seconds
of “powerful, violent
convulsions.” Marc
said that the seizures
were so powerful that
he and his wife Kristen
would take turns
sleeping on the floor
next to Anna to prevent
her from injuring
herself at night.
Even Anna’s
younger sister Nora,
who is two years her
junior, would volunteer
to put her hand on her
sister’s forehead as she
slept in the hope that it
would stop the seizures
from coming.
To regulate her
epilepsy, doctors put
Anna on a “cocktail”
of up to seven different
medications including
valium, Dilantin and
a host of other antiseizure
medication. But
Marc said that none
of these treatments
stopped the seizures
for long.
Marc shared that
the “strange blessing”
was that Anna’s
seizures were limited
to the nighttime,
which allowed her to
have a fairly normal
childhood. The MS 158
student has been able
to participate in Girl
Scouts, student council,
Anna Palmieri gets a visit from a friend in the hospital. Courtesy of Marc Palmieri
softball, volleyball and
dance at the Robert
Mann Dance Centre.
“Her life looked as
normal as we could
have hoped except that
she was exhausted by
nightly seizures,” said
Marc.
But things took a
turn last April when
Anna felt the symptoms
of a seizure happening
when she was playing
softball.
“I felt my heart race,
chest cramp and my
right arm went numb,”
Anna told Weill Cornell
Hospital. Her parents
brought her to the
emergency room, where
doctors confirmed
the Palmieris’ fears —
that Anna’s seizures
would begin happening
during the day.
One night, Marc
said that Anna woke
up in the middle of
the night with the
right side of her body
paralyzed. Doctors
diagnosed Anna with
Todd’s Paralysis,
which causes fatigue
and numbness on one
side of the body after a
seizure.
At that point, Anna,
who was then an
11-year-old sixth-grade
student, had been
hospitalized three
times over three weeks
and faced the threat
of “status epilepticus”
— a condition where
epileptic seizures
happen one after
the other without
consciousness between
them.
After Anna’s
seizures had once
again led her to the
NewYork-Presbyterian
Komansky Hospital,
the director of the
Pediatric Epilepsy
Program, Dr. Zachary
Grinspan, referred the
Palmieris to Dr. Caitlin
Hoffman, a pediatric
neurosurgeon “with
advanced training in
the surgical treatment
of epilepsy.”
Dr. Hoffman, her
colleague Dr. Theodore
Schwartz and the
rest of the pediatric
epilepsy team at Weill
Cornell successfully
operated on Anna on
June 18, 2018, and her
father said she has
been seizure-free ever
since.
Marc credits their
“village” of supporters
with helping them
through some of their
toughest times.
When Anna had to
miss two months of
school last year, MS 158
sent them a Department
of Education teacher
to teach her at home.
The school’s guidance
department and her
Girl Scout troop sent
notes and stuffed
animals when Anna
was recovering from
surgery. The Pastor at
All Saints Church was
present on the day of
Anna’s surgery.
He added that
the instructors at
Anna’s dance school
even allowed her to
participate in her dance
recital after she had
started getting seizures
in the daytime.
“If she wants to go
on, she’s going on,”
the instructors told
Marc, and added that
they would wait in the
wings and remove her
from the stage if she
had an unexpected
seizure.
Almost eight
months later, Marc
said that all of Anna’s
EEG tests come back
with “only normal
readings.” He shared
that though some fear
may still linger in the
back of their minds, the
Palmieris’ lives have
changed for the better.
He said that he and
his wife sleep better
these days and Anna
can go to her friends’
sleepovers now that
constant observation is
no longer necessary.
8 TIMESLEDGER, FEB. 8-14, 2019 TIMESLEDGER.COM
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