Father and daughter each undergo brain surgery just months apart

CHARLOTTE — There’s nothing stronger than a bond between a father and daughter. After what Isaias Sanchez and his 14-year-old daughter, Saleh, experienced just months apart, their bond is even stronger.

For Isaias, it all started with an unusual headache.

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“I started getting ice pick headaches, he said. “Certain parts of my head would just sting me.”

Isaias was diagnosed with Chiari malformation. Novant Health neurosurgeon Dr. Ziad Hage said that’s when the brain and the skull don’t develop at the same pace. The brain outgrows the skull, leaving fluid to build up in the spinal cord.

Dr. Hage said in Isaias’ case, surgery was the only fix.

“The goal of the surgery is to remove a small part of the skull right here. So the lower part is removed, as well as the backbone of the C-1 vertebrae,” Hage said. “We provided more space for the cerebellum.”

The surgery was a success and Isaias said he was soon back to normal. But not long after his medical journey, Saleh began her own. It’s something no one saw coming.

It all started at a friend’s sleepover.

“I started having vision issues where I would look at an object and I wouldn’t be able to focus on the object,” she said. “It would be blurry.”

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Less than a year after her dad’s surgery, Saleh was the one in Dr. Hage’s office. She was diagnosed with something far more serious than her father was; an MRI revealed arteriovenous malformation, or AVM. Doctors said her brain somehow developed a tangled web of arteries and veins on the right side and it was potentially deadly.

“This was a ticking time bomb in her brain?” asked Channel 9′s Damany Lewis.

“It was absolutely because it could have bled at any time and it could have devasted her or taken her life,” Dr. Hage said.

So for the second time in under a year, a member of the Sanchez family was in the OR undergoing brain surgery.

After the surgery and radiation, Saleh is feeling more like herself and doing the things she loves. The father-daughter duo says what they’ve experienced has brought them closer together.

“It’s an experience that no one else went through,” Isaias said.

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