Overcoming a Brain Infection: Trevis
“I was in great fear; I thought I was losing him.” – Trevis’ mom
Holding her bouncing baby boy, Julian told us the story of how her little boy, Trevis, became desperately ill. By looking at his cheeky smile today, you would never guess that just weeks ago he was fighting a life-threatening infection close to his brain.
Julian and her husband have two children, a three-year-old daughter, and 10-month old Trevis. He was a happy and healthy little guy, until one day when he fell off the bed. Two weeks later, the fevers began. Trevis developed severe high-grade fevers, due to a bacterial infection, which may have been connected to his fall. His parents, who live in Mbarara in Western Uganda, took him to a nearby hospital where he stayed for a week as the doctors struggled to get his fever down. When his fever persisted, they were referred to a children’s hospital in Mbarara. While there, Trevis’ condition continued to deteriorate, and he started having seizures all day long on the left side of his body.
At Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, the third hospital visited, Trevis was given a CT scan, and it was discovered that he had pus on his brain. This hospital has close connections with CURE Uganda and told the family to take Trevis to CURE. Julian said, “they told us CURE is the best, and then we came!”
Julian and Trevis made the long journey across Uganda and came to Mbale, where the doctors and neurosurgeons evaluated Trevis and found he had a subdural empyema, a rare intracranial infection that develops between some of the layers of protective tissue around the brain. Symptoms of this infection can be fever, headache, seizures, vomiting, and if not treated, can lead to coma and death.
Our CURE neurosurgeons were able to perform a craniotomy to treat Trevis and remove the pus from the protective covering of his brain. He was treated with antibiotics, and two weeks later, he had a second neurosurgery to drain more of the abscess and continued with antibiotics. They stayed at CURE for an entire month, and Julian told us that it was well worth it! “At the other hospitals, the treatment failed, but here, after the operations, he started changing — now you can see for yourself, he is a happy man!”
As she prepared for the trip home, Julian told us that she thinks she knows why God brought her and Trevis to CURE, “so that she could come to know Jesus!” She let us know that she was a Christian when she arrived but had a negative attitude towards some Christians. However, after talking with a pastor from our spiritual department, she considers herself a born again Christian, renewed in her faith. She even told her husband about being born again, “I told him that you’d better become one too! He said yes, he will become one also. I think that’s why God brought us here.”
Julian’s joy and excitement about being born again radiate from her face and beautiful smile, which matches baby Trevis’s smile! We’re so excited that hope and healing has been brought onto this entire family through the good news of the gospel and the faithful work of our medical and spiritual teams.
Footnote: Article written by Abby Watrous
