Patient of UT Houston neurologist gives
back in gratitude for her care
HOUSTON — (Dec. 19, 2008) — As 2-month-old Leigh Ann Breen sat behind her in her car seat, mom Sarah Breen heard her push out a cry that sounded weak. By the time the young mother reached home and pulled out the infant’s pacifier, Leigh Ann’s lips and nose had turned blue. Sarah rushed across the street to a neighbor and together they performed CPR until the baby was breathing again.
Just a few years earlier, Leigh Ann, an achondroplastic dwarf, might have died from the gradual narrowing of the spinal column that cut off her ability to breathe and move like other infants. At the very least, she could have been left with learning disabilities from the repeated lack of oxygen to her brain.
But 24 years ago, the very surgery that she desperately needed to widen the spinal canal had just come off the experimental list. Only 12 procedures had been performed in the United States and all of the children had been older than Leigh Ann.
“We had to do it or she was going to die,” said Ian J. Butler, M.D., the Adriana Blood Professor in Neurology at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, a member of the original treating team and an attending physician at what is now known as Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital where the surgery was performed. “Her spinal cord was so thin you could almost see through it.”
Child life specialist Leigh Ann Breen, who underwent a new procedure by UT Medical School physicians 24 years ago, entertains a child at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.
Photo by Deborah Mann Lake
Sarah and her husband, Patrick Breen, D.V.M., agreed, trusting in the medical team and their faith.
The 12-hour surgery was a success. Leigh Ann transformed from lying nearly motionless because of the compromised spinal cord to wiggling like a normal baby.
“You were kicking your little legs and flailing your arms when we saw you in recovery,” her mother emailed to her recently when asked to describe the event. “I think that is probably the hardest I have ever cried. YOU ARE A MIRACLE!”
In their 1990 defining review of studies, published in the Journal of Child Neurology, Butler and Jacqueline Hecht, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and a medical geneticist, linked neurologic complications with bony stenosis in the entire vertebral column and base of the skull in achondroplastic children. The surgery performed on Leigh Ann is now considered standard-of-care for achondroplastic children with narrowing of the spinal canal.
By the time Leigh Ann was 19, she had undergone 19 surgeries from ear tubes and tonsils to growth plate and bone removal for her legs. She also had more decompression surgeries on her spine, performed by Children’s Memorial Hermann pediatric neurosurgeon James Baumgartner, M.D., who follows her progress to this day.
Leigh Ann had to periodically attend school in leg braces and a “clam shell” cast after surgeries in addition to dealing with being different because of her small stature. It all made her tougher.
“It takes great courage to endure hospital stays 19 times,” said her mother, whose favorite line to her is, “You don’t have a disability. You have a different ability.”
When Leigh Ann was in second grade, her parents decided to send her to Texas Lions Camp, which serves children with physical disabilities, diabetes and cancer. Leigh Ann felt she had found a place where the “outside” of a person is overlooked to see the child inside. When she was old enough, she became a camp counselor.
“It was hard to send her away for camp, but I knew Leigh Ann had to survive in any situation,” her mother said. “Little bits of independence led her to become a very lovely young lady.”
Today, you’ll find Leigh Ann, a graduate of Texas State University, walking the halls of Children’s Memorial Hermann as a board-certified child life specialist, giving back in the spirit of those who helped her.
“Child Life made such a difference in my hospital stays. They made sure I was OK and coping OK and they made me feel like a normal person,” said Leigh Ann, who works in the pediatric dialysis unit. “I know what I went through and so I can relate to the children here and it’s rewarding. I get paid to have fun."
When Leigh Ann, then a sixth-grader, was having leg surgery, her mom said she could picture her as a child life specialist.
“Then when she became a camp counselor, it was so obvious seeing her work with kids that she had a personality that would be compassionate and relate to their feelings and fears so well, but not baby them,” Sarah said.
Leigh Ann said she owes much of her success to that first medical care team.
“I’m eternally grateful,” Leigh Ann said. “If not for them, I wouldn’t have graduated from high school or college. I’m living independently and supporting myself. I have a rewarding life.”