Owen Jacobsen needed a miracle, and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital was there to make it happen.
Primary Children’s top-notch neurology and neurosurgery services gave the 12-year-old from St. George hope and helped him get better.
Owen began having seizures that no one could understand when he was eleven years old.
They began as strange feelings in his left arm and turned into a tremble.
He had what seemed to be a grand mal seizure at home. His mum, Rindi Jacobsen, remembered, “it was long and it was violent.”
Even worse, Owen was still awake. He thought he was going to die at this point.
A common cyst was seen on brain tests done in the emergency room. It was thought that the seizure was a rare event. But Owen got another one two days after that.
His mother said, “This was the start of one of the scariest events of our lives.”
The boy’s seizures got worse and got in the way of his schoolwork and hobbies. He had headaches when he tried to play the French horn.
His medicine made him sleepy. Soccer and swimming races got too much, as did going to school in person. He changed classes to online ones.
Owen’s physician dad thought something was not right. He asked the doctors to look at Owen’s pictures again, and they saw a tumour in his brain next to the cyst.
Owen was put in touch with paediatric neurosurgeon Robert Bollo, MD, from the University of Utah Health and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. He would meet Owen at Intermountain Primary Children’s in Salt Lake City.
Owen’s mum said, “Dr. Bollo has been kind, caring, and professional from the first time we met him.” “He made us feel confident that he could help Owen and gave us a lot of options for surgery.
We were thrilled with both.” We knew right away that we were in very good hands—hands that were incredibly skilled, surgical, and clever.
Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy is a very specialised treatment that Owen had.
A craniotomy surgery, which is much more invasive, takes longer to heal, and has a higher chance of cognitive problems afterwards, is not used. Instead, LITT is used.
LITT is only available in a few children’s hospitals across the country. Surgeons use an iMRI machine to guide a probe with special fibres through a small hole in the brain.
With this technology, Dr. Bollo could be sure that he would only burn away cancer cells and leave healthy brain regions alone.
It worked.
Owen said, “Having seizures was not fun, but they were gone after surgery.”
Owen was able to start seventh grade at Sunrise Ridge Intermediate School with his friends. He is in the student government, the swim team, and the math team. He rides his bike and plays the French horn in the school band again.
Owen’s mum also said, “He is back to himself and doing so great. He is living a happy, full life.” “He is better than ever.” Everything is going well for him, and we are so thankful and full of hope that this is over. “What a miracle.”
For four years in a row, Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital has been named No. 1 in the country for neurology and neurosurgery patient outcomes.
This is because it is the teaching hospital for paediatric neurology at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
So that we can keep improving clinical care and helping Primary Children’s patients do well, we are hiring some of the best doctors in the country, said Angelo P. Giardino, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine and chief medical officer at Primary Children’s Hospital. ”
This independent national recognition shows how committed we are to providing high-quality, compassionate care to children and how well our team works together.”
U.S. News ranked Intermountain Primary Children’s in the Top 25 in these specialties:
Neurology & Neurosurgery
Cardiology & Heart Surgery
Nephrology
Gastroenterology & GI Surgery
Intermountain Primary Children’s is placed in all of the other categories that were used to choose the Best Children’s Hospitals. These categories are:
Behavioral Health
Cancer
Diabetes & Endocrine Disorders
Neonatal Care
Orthopedics
Pulmonology
Urology
It is also tied for first place in the country for results in neurology and neurosurgery for the third year in a row at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital.
