Betsy is married to Dustin - and they have a son, Cooper (who is the same age as Anya). Cooper was diagnosed with Moyamoya syndrome - which is a pretty complicated diagnosis.
Betsy and Cooper were featured on our local news tonight in a story called "A relentless Michiana mother helps her son recover from Moyamoya syndrome"
Here is the story: http://www.wndu.com/mmm/headlines/19579324.html (see the video clip from the story on the web site)
A relentless Michiana mother helps her son recover from Moyamoya syndrome Save Email Print
Posted: 6:29 PM Jun 5, 2008
Last Updated: 6:29 PM Jun 5, 2008
Reporter: Maureen McFadden
Email Address: maureen.mcfadden@wndu.com
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A relentless Michiana mother helps her son recover from Moyamoya syndrome
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Moyamoya syndrome was first described in Japan in the 1960s, and if it hadn't been for the never-give-up attitude of a Michiana mom, it could have killed her son.
Except for the scar running along five-year-old Cooper Tavernier's hairline, he looks like any other little boy.
But Cooper was a very sick boy for two years, with a very relentless mother.
“Out of desperation, the mother came to me and said, "I really think there's something else going on. There is something wrong," explained Dr. H. Jesse Hseih, president of the South Bend Clinic.
When Cooper was three, he started having what his original doctor said were seizures. But medicine didn't help.
“In reality, he was having small strokes, or mini strokes,” clarified Hseih.
So the doctor sent Cooper to the University of Chicago, where he was diagnosed with Moyamoya syndrome.
Moyamoya gets its name from the Japanese language, meaning “puffs of smoke,” and describes the tangle of tiny vessels that form to compensate for blocked carotid arteries in the neck.
“We only see about 100 cases or so of it in the year in the whole world,” remarked Hseih.
“When they diagnosed him with Moyamoya, they told us that the clock was ticking,” explained Cooper’s mother, Becky. “That it could happen anytime. He could have a massive stroke and never recover.”
A week after hearing this news, Becky had Cooper in Boston, ready for the surgery -- with one of the foremost doctors treating in Moyamoya.
“If you find any kind of fresh artery to put into the brain itself, it will grow new arteries,” explained Hseih. “So what they did was they dissected away a scalp artery. Then they took that scalp artery and slid it through that hole they made in the skull, and attached that actual artery to the brain.”
“So no longer does he need that carotid that is getting blocked, but this artery from the brain is growing through a hole, feeding off, creating new arteries, and now growing,” said the doctor.
And Cooper was making a spectacular recovery -- until the day he was to be released from the hospital.
While waiting for their release papers, Cooper completely stopped breathing.
It was an agonizing 12 hours.
“All of the sudden he started breathing on his own, came right out of it, and nobody can tell me why that happened,” says Becky. “He's kind of the miracle child.”
And for more than one reason.
Doctors say Cooper no longer needs surgery on the other side of his brain.
“They told us that his brain was repairing itself on its own -- they don't know why or how -- but we were going to let nature take its course, and they cancelled the surgeries,” explains Becky.
Cooper will be checked every six months, and since his disease is a progressive one he will probably need more surgery as he grows.
But Dr. Hseih says Cooper's prognosis is good, and it was key that doctors figured out what was wrong before it was too late.
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