Local teen receives life-changing surgery to cure seizures

CHARLOTTE — A local teen is doing the things he loves again following a life-changing surgery.

After more than a decade of living with crippling seizures, persistent doctors finally found a solution.

Seventeen-year-old Zac Hullander said he is feeling on top of the world now that he has gone more than 100 days without seizures.

At age four, he was diagnosed with leukemia. And because his rigorous treatments included chemotherapy and steroids, he developed epilepsy.

Hullander’s mother, Natalie Hullander, said this development was like a gut punch.

ALSO READ: Carolina hospitals team up to find solutions for pediatric cancer

“I felt that after the chemo treatment he was finished and in remission. And that the seizures would stop, and they didn’t. That was very disappointing,” Natalie explained.

Doctors declared Zac cancer-free at the age of eight, but because of his persistent seizures, he still couldn’t do one of the things he loved, playing sports.

“He has been through more in his lifetime than most of us will ever go through,” said neurologist Dr. Erin Kiehna with Novant Health.

Kiehna said she and her team never gave up work to improve Zac’s quality of life.

When he was eleven, Kiehna said doctors began working to pinpoint where in his brain the seizures originated.

This led to the implantation of electrodes into the right side of Zac’s brain.

ALSO READ: Medical student designs device aimed at helping patients during seizures; Atrium pilots invention

“Implant depth electrodes into the brain from all different angles, then we line the brain with the grid,” Kiehna explained. “That is getting us that information about where the seizure starts and where it spreads to.”

Now, with a blueprint of where Zac’s seizures originated, they were able to fix the problem.

Doctors performed a six-hour surgery, a partial frontal lobectomy, and removed the brain tissue causing Zac’s seizures.

Zac has since returned home, where when he’s not watching TV, he’s bowling and golfing with his friends seizure-free.

Natalie said her son is grateful for everything and everyone that helped him get to this moment.

VIDEO: Carolina hospitals team up to find solutions for pediatric cancer