Hula was playing with her siblings at home when suddenly her head started to hurt.
Her father Muhammed explains: “She suddenly dropped to the floor, screaming from pain. We tried to lift her up, but we quickly realized that she could not move.”
Her condition deteriorated so quickly that Hula’s parents immediately called an ambulance. Luckily, the family lives just a few minutes away from Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem.
She arrived at Hadassah Hospital with agonizing head pain and signs of paralysis on her entire right side- from her face, to her arm, and all the way down to her leg.
The signs of a stroke were obvious to Professor Cohen, Director of the Brain Catheterization Lab. “Yet, we were very surprised, as we had never seen such a young stroke victim,” said Prof. Cohen.
The CT and MRI confirmed that the 7-year-old was experiencing a stroke and was in immediate danger. The stroke was caused by a blood clot that had formed in her heart and then travelled to the brain, blocking the flow of blood.
Hula was immediately operated on by a highly specialized team in the Catheterization Lab. The surgery was complex, made even more so by the fact that Hula suffers from a rare heart defect.
Miraculously, Hula beat the odds. The surgery was a success and within a few days Hula had recuperated.
Professor Cohen shared, “Two out of every 100,000 children suffer from strokes each year. Yet only one in 10 million children need catheterization, as was the case with Hula!”
