Tonight's Fund Raiser

Tonight is the fund raiser for Liam. There are so many great donated gifts! The community has been very generous! It should be a wonderful event! Hopefully, many people will come. It will be worth their while. Pictures will be posted about it tomorrow.

Liam's Surgeon

Liam's surgery should take about 5 hours. His surgeon is Dr. Michael Handler. There was a program about him on TV a while back because he seperated some conjoined twins.

Last week he did the same surgery that he is doing on Liam for a baby girl. The next morning she was breast feeding! This is absolutely amazing! We are just grateful for everyday that Liam hangs in there! Because of modern medicine this little guy has a hopeful future!

Surgery Day Set

The doctors have set a definite day for Liam's surgery. It will be Monday, February 22. They will carefully seperate the two sides of his brain and take out the affect areas from the disorder on the right side. It would be reasonable that they would send him home within 4 or 5 days after surgery! That is hard to even comprehend, but maybe things will get better from this point.

Liam had 3 seizures today. Jeff and Heather and the grandparents met with the doctors about the surgery this afternoon. All three doctors agreed that the surgery needed to be done, even though the seizures have let up a little in the last few days. They will find out tomorrow when the surgery will be done.

Liam went for a 24 hour span of time without a seizure between Saturday and Sunday! This is a first since he has been monitored. However, Sunday evening he had a very mild one. So, far today he has had just one. This is still a big improvement!

Liam's Story

Liam was born to proud parents Jeff and Heather Howe on December 1st 2009. He weighed in at 8 pounds and 12 ounces and was 22 1/2 inches long.




Jeff and Heather brought their brand new baby home from the hospital to begin life as parents. Three days later Heather noticed him doing something strange with his eyes. This quick thinking new mother grabbed her cell phone and videoed what was happening, then ran him to the hospital. It was determined that he was having a seizure in his eyes and was given his first emergency flight to Albuquerque to a more extensive neonatal unit.

He spent several days there as they ran series of tests and tried anti-seizure medications until they found what they thought was working. After one long week Liam was able to return to his home with his mom and dad, hopefully having control of the seizures.

His parents watched him very carefully and things appeared to be going well, until one evening, several weeks after being home, Liam had a seizure that lasted about 25 minutes. This time it was an ambulance ride to the hospital and another flight to Albuquerque . The doctors in Albuquerque did everything they knew to do as Liam continued to have multiple seizures each day. They determined Liam needed to be sent to Children's Hospital in Denver , where they have some of the best children's seizure specialists in the country, so he got to take another air flight to a new state.

Testing and probing continued and weeks continued to pass. Jeff (Liam's dad) had to return to New Mexico to help pay the bills. Heather is able to stay with Liam, and continued to watch her little sweet baby suffer through more testing, more seizures, and more unanswered questions. Jeff come each week end as soon as he can.

Extensive testing results showed that Liam was having even more seizures than they thought. As he was making what appeared to be normal baby movements Liam was actually having seizures. One night as they ran a brain EEG it showed Liam had too many seizures for them even to count. Everyone knew Liam's condition was very serious. Last Friday the doctors were finally able to put a name to these seizures. Liam has a rare condition called "Neuronal Migration Disorder" and Liam is not responding to any of the seizure medications, special diet... anything! He is now in the Intensive Care Unit.

The doctors feel they have come to their last resort in order to save this baby's life. Next week Liam will be having surgery to remove most of the right side of his brain. The results should leave Liam without seizures, he will probably lose some of his peripheral vision, he should be able to run and play as he grows like any other child, and his learning may be slightly slow...but he should be able to grow up having a very normal life...Isn't it amazing what the brain can recover from?!

This blog is meant to be an update on Liam's condition and provide a way for those who are willing and able to contribute to the Liam Howe Lil Angel Charity Account. Thoughts and prayers are also needed for this sweet little boy. Please visit our How You Can Help page to see what you can do. Every single act of kindness, no matter the size, helps.

Thank you!