“Keyhole” Brain Surgery: 1st in Western Canada!

Nicholas and his brain surgeon,
Dr. Walter Hader

According to his mom, Nicolas lived his life in a fog for eleven years. Medications weren’t working and surgery didn’t appear to be an option to help control his unrelenting seizures ... until one amazing day.

That day, doctors at the Alberta Children’s Hospital told him and his mom there was a new surgical procedure that could change his life forever. Nicholas was a perfect candidate for keyhole surgery – a minimally invasive technique where surgery is performed through a one centimetre hole in the skull.

Dr. Walter Hader, a brain surgeon at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, performed the highly-complex operation to remove the 5 mm lesion from the centre of Nicholas’s brain using new equipment paid for by donations from the community. It was the first time the procedure had been done west of Montreal. Remarkably, Nicholas now lives each day seizure free.

Nicolas’s mom says she truly believes our specialists not only changed her son’s life, they also gave her the son she never knew she had. “Before surgery, he was exhausted all the time and his emotions were completely out of control. Now, he’s full of energy and he’s free to be himself. He has a future that we couldn’t have imagined for him before!”

“It’s extremely rewarding to be involved with these families in these kinds of life-changing experiences,” says Dr. Hader. “Support from the community makes a very real difference for kids like Nicholas.”