Half of Brianna Bodley’s brain turned off to fight Rasmussen’s encephalitis

A 6-year-old Southern California girl battling a rare brain disease had one side of her brain shut down by surgeons as a potential cure that will still allow her to be the “same person” and lead a normal life, according to her medical team.

Brianna Bodley was dealing with daily seizures from Rasmussen’s encephalitis – a chronic inflammation of the brain that can lead to permanent brain damage and motor skill deterioration, but a 10-hour surgery might have been the trick to beat RE, according to a KABC report.

Instead of removing part of her brain like doctors used to do, pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Aaron Robison, of Loma Linda University Health, said shutting down half of her brain was the most effective method.

“Just disconnecting it is enough to stop the disease completely and essentially, potentially cure it,” he told the station.

Brianna was diagnosed with the debilitating disease last year, causing the girl who used to sing, dance and read often to suffer daily.

“Her leg would bend up all the time and she would have trouble walking,” the girl’s mother Crystal Bodley said.

When she started taking anti-seizure meds and steroids, she gained weight rapidly and continued to deal with the progressing disease.

“She would talk to me sometimes and said she was scared, but I told her, ‘I know it’s scary, but you will be okay,’” her sister Torie Bodley told KABC.

Doctors decided to switch off the non-functioning part of her brain by going through the brain’s natural opening called the sylvian fissure, Robison said.

The left side is still functioning and is now taking over the duties the right side used to have. Doctors said the girl might lose some peripheral vision and some fine motor skills in her left hand, but physical therapy will help get her back to being a typical 6-year-old.

“Brianna will still be the same person, even after disconnecting half her brain,” Robison said, according to the local station.

The Bodley family has been posting on Instagram about Brianna’s road to recovery since her surgery went smoothly near the end of September. A couple days ago, her mother reported that she was walking with help and on Sunday, she said the little girl was awake all day for the first time since the surgery.

“Happy to have my baby back and awake. Still working on balance and learning to walk. Finding things to the left is hard for her. She won’t know nothing is there unless she is told. Her pain is under control almost gone,” the mom said in the Instagram post.

The post included a photo of the stitches still in the girl’s head, but also images of her playing games and attempting to walk with help.

“I just want to see her little Brianna running around doing her artwork and having the fun she always had,” her grandmother Chris Breheim told KABC.