Saadi Ghatan, MD, and Sadie Gonzalez before her surgery.
Episode 2 of a new Netflix docu-series titled “Diagnosis” focuses on seven-year-old Sadie Gonzalez from Queens, who suddenly began suffering seizures. Doctors at one New York hospital give her the devastating diagnosis of Rasmussen’s encephalitis and tell her parents the only option is a damaging and irreversible brain surgery that would leave her paralyzed over half her body.
When her parents seek a second opinion at The Mount Sinai Hospital with Saadi Ghatan, MD, director of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Program for the Mount Sinai Health System, and Lara Marcuse, MD, co-director of the Mount Sinai Epilepsy Program and Associate Professor of Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, they learn there is another option.
Dr. Ghatan, who is also Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine, suggests that a less-invasive surgery is possible—a responsive neurostimulator (RNS) system, a small, implantable neurostimulator connected to tiny wires that are placed in specific seizure onset areas of the brain to deliver electrical stimulation that normalizes the disturbed brain circuitry causing the seizures. He explains that similar to a pacemaker that monitors and responds to heart rhythms, the RNS system will monitor and “learn” her seizure patterns, then deliver electrical stimulation to stop them in their tracks.
Lara Marcuse, MD
The episode follows Sadie’s and her family’s journey through the decision-making process and successful surgery at Mount Sinai.
Although Rasmussen’s encephalitis is an incurable condition and it may be six months to a year before physicians know if the device is successfully helping her, early results look promising.
The seven-part Netflix series is based on the long-running New York Times Magazine column titled “Diagnosis.”Watch the trailer and learn more about the series here. Read more about the series in an article in USA Today.