Ibrahim (Ibi) is an eight-year old boy in third grade. He is a delight to his parents, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, babysitter, friends and neighbors. He likes watching movies, ordering at diners, taking plane trips, rolling on his scooter, watching his neighbors, playing with animals (mostly cats), singing Adele, dancing in private and playing hide and
seek. And he loves trains, particularly the New York City subway system.
When Ibi was born he had a stroke. We don’t know why he had the stroke and probably never will. The stroke caused him to have weakness on his right-side, a condition called hemiplegia. Ibi wears a brace on his right hand. He also wears one on his leg to help him get around. He has had many years of therapy to try to help him strengthen and improve function on his right-side. Through all the therapy he has had good humor and worked hard.
The stroke also caused a seizure disorder. For many years his seizures were well-controlled with medication and did little to interfere with his life. In the past year, his seizures have gotten far worse and led to several hospitalizations. He has had rounds of new medication and is now taking Depakote and Vimpat which while they provide some control have not been able to fully control his seizures. They also make him tired, irritable and make it
difficult to concentrate.
Fortunately, Ibrahim is a candidate for a type of epilepsy surgery that has good chance of curing his seizures. We are hopeful that his surgery will be able to take-away or greatly reduce his seizures and that eventually he will be able to be weaned off or reduce his anti-seizure medications.
Ibi will be going into the NYU Langone Medical Center on October 12th. He will be having a hemispherectomy on the left hemisphere of his brain. The surgery aims to remove some of the area of his brain that was damaged by the stroke and to disconnect the parts of his brain where the seizures are starting from.
While the surgery and recovery are difficult. This procedure has been done thousands of times. Many of our friends from CHASA (Children’s Hemiplegia and Stroke Association)
have reported great results from the surgery.
We are hopeful that this procedure will help Ibi. We will be posting updates on this page. Any support, prayers, good wishes or help you can provide is greatly appreciated.
Aside from prayers and positive thoughts, if you want to help Ibi and his family here are a few things that you can do:
1. Send Ibi a message. You can post messages on
this page or mail him a letter at:
246 Westminster Road
Brooklyn, NY
11218
We will read him the messages, show him pictures you send and pass along any good wishes, encouragement you have for him during his surgery and recovery.
2. Send his older sister Zuzu a message, the past year has been hard on her as well. And she has shown immense strength and resilience for a 10-year old. She is a great support for Ibi, plays with him, talks to him and will be a cornerstone of his recovery. You can send her
encouragement at the address above.
3. Pay it forward – Organizations that have been tremendously helpful in getting us through the last year are the Children’s Hemiplegia and Stroke Association (CHASA), the Epilepsy Society and the Brain Recovery Project.
Donations to them will help children like Ibi. You can donate here:
CHASA:
http://chasa.org/you-can-help/donate/Epilepsy Foundation:
https://epilepsyfoundation.secure.force.com/EpilepsyPublicDonationPage?form=a04i000000AVI44Brain Recovery Project:
http://www.brainrecoveryproject.org/donate/ 4. If you want to help by spending time with Zuzu,
helping with chores, visiting with Ibi and his family please contact us
at: ahsq74@gmail.com or mdorregaray1@gmail.com, you can also text us or message us on Facebook. We look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks again for your prayers, good wishes and support.
