Meet Sariah – Our 2020 CMN Champion

Have you ever experienced a seizure? Most of us haven’t.  For Sariah Moreno on the other hand, a young teen in the Fresno area, seizures were all too common – occurring as frequently as twice a day. 

Fourteen years ago Sariah was born with an interesting port-wine stain birthmark on her forehead. At first what did not seem concerning turned out to be Sturge –Weber syndrome, a condition that prevented Sariah’s brain from developing normally. As a result, Sariah began experiencing seizures as young as five months old. The seizures were frequent and powerful for thirteen years. Clearly, this dramatically impacted Sariah and her family’s life. Schooling was difficult, vacation was impossible, and small things like growing were being stunted because of her seizures.  Incredibly, Sariah’s brain responded by altering itself, giving functions normally controlled by the right side to the left, leaving the right side responsible for nothing more than seizing.

Eventually, Sariah and her family came to Valley Children’s where Dr. Cesar Santos, Medical Director of Neurosciences and Neurology, suggested a hemispherectomy.  A hemispherectomy is a complex brain surgery. Doctor’s Patricia Clerkin and Julia Sharma performed the surgery in November of 2018, disconnecting Sariah’s left side of her brain from her right. After only a week in recovery Sariah was able to go home. To this day Sariah has not been victim to one seizure and is beginning to experience a childhood with more play, less fear and more freedom. Watch more of Sariah’s story here.