Maisyn's Miracle: A Journey to Freedom from Epilepsy at CHRISTUS Children’s

Recognizing the First Signs of Childhood Epilepsy

For Megan, the early warning signs were subtle, persistent and impossible to ignore.

I remember Maisyn would be sitting on my lap, playing just fine, and then suddenly stop and start drooling, Megan recalled. And when I say drooling, I mean like a little faucet—just streaming down.

The episodes lasted around 30 seconds, and then Maisyn would go right back to whatever she was doing, as if nothing had happened. It continued for about a month, but each time Megan tried to capture it on video, the moment would end before she could even press record.

Then one day at the grocery store, it became undeniable.

She did it again, just standing there, drooling. I kept going, ‘Maisyn, Maisyn,’ snapping my fingers. She wasn’t responding. And I just remember thinking—she’s having a seizure.

Living in a small town about 40 minutes outside of San Antonio, Megan took Maisyn to a nearby 24-hour urgent care clinic. But the visit didn’t go the way she hoped.

They tested her for strep and she came back positive, Megan said. But I told them—this has been going on for a month. This is not strep. This is something else. I said it’s almost like a seizure.

When Megan described the episodes, the urgent care doctor dismissed them as symptoms of strep and prescribed antibiotics. But Megan trusted her instincts—this didn’t feel like an infection. She began noticing other physical signs, too. Maisyn’s eye would twitch and her mouth would kind of twitch too. I wasn’t seeing the kind of seizures where someone falls to the ground or completely zones out—but I knew something neurological was going on.

That night, Maisyn experienced what Megan was now convinced were seizures in her sleep. The next morning, she went straight to the pediatrician, bringing videos and a detailed description of the twitching, drooling and sudden blank stares.

The pediatrician said, ‘It looks like she has epilepsy.’

The pediatrician didn’t hesitate. She referred Maisyn to a neurologist. This was a turning point in Megan’s ongoing search for answers—one that would finally lead them through a series of brain scans, tests and specialists.

From Strep Misdiagnosis to Neurology Referral

One of the most alarming episodes occurred at daycare, where 4-year-old Maisyn experienced nine seizures in a single day. I own the daycare, and seeing her go through that, I knew we had to act, Megan recalls. She rushed Maisyn to the ER, where the on-call neurologist prescribed anti-seizure medication and offered to admit her. With two other children at home, Megan chose to manage her care as an outpatient.

But the medication brought its own challenges. She was just not herself, Megan said. One moment she was happy, the next she was flipping tables, flipping chairs. I had to take her outside to calm her down. She went from happy to sad to crying to angry—all in a matter of minutes.

An initial EEG didn’t detect any seizures, so a three-day at-home EEG was ordered. When the results came in, they confirmed seizure activity on the left side of Maisyn’s brain. An MRI followed to look for structural issues, but it came back normal. Still, the seizures persisted, and medication after medication failed to provide lasting control. One caused a rash, another triggered severe mood swings.

After months of little progress, Megan sought a second opinion. While researching care for her son with ADHD, she found another neurologist with great bedside manner. He really listened, Megan said. He adjusted her medications and kept a close eye on her progress. For a while, things started to improve.

Maisyn’s seizures didn’t stop entirely, but they became more predictable—mostly involving drooling and subtle twitching around the eyes and mouth. She would maybe go a month without one, Megan said, And just when we’d start to feel hopeful, they’d return.

One night, when Maisyn was around 7 years old, things took a sudden turn. We had just finished dinner, and I was about to give her medicine when, out of nowhere, she had a seizure and threw up everywhere,” Megan said. “She hadn’t had a seizure in weeks. It was completely unexpected.

Megan called the neurologist, who had once hoped Maisyn might outgrow the seizures. After hearing about the incident, he told her, I don’t think she’s going to grow out of it. You need someone like a neurosurgeon.

Turning Point: The Pediatric Neurology Care Team at CHRISTUS Children’s

In 2023, hope arrived when 7-year-old Maisyn was referred to the Neurosciences Center at CHRISTUS Children’s in San Antonio. There, Megan met pediatric epilepsy specialist Dr. Gustavo Charria-Ortiz and pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Mark Lee—two physicians who would soon play a pivotal role in Maisyn’s treatment.

I felt an immediate sense of trust with them, Megan said. They took the time to listen, to explain and most importantly, they made us feel like we were no longer in this fight alone.

The CHRISTUS Children’s team quickly launched a full epilepsy workup. After consulting with Dr. Lee in September 2022, he referred Maisyn to Dr. Charria, the first neurologist she had seen who specialized specifically in epilepsy. Dr. Charria adjusted her medications and ordered an inpatient video EEG, where Maisyn stayed several days. Her medications were gradually lowered and eventually stopped, so that seizure activity could be captured on video.

Maisyn was initially admitted to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, but after three nights, she began experiencing she was experiencing intense symptoms, including hallucinations, sleeplessness and increasing seizure activity. Her care team moved her to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), for closer monitoring. During her time in the PICU, Maisyn had a grand mal seizure—her first of this kind—which prompted immediate imaging and escalated the urgency of her care. By Sunday afternoon, once she had stabilized and resumed her full medication regimen, she was transferred to the Pediatric Intermediate Care Unit.

The MRI showed normal results, but the EEG revealed seizure activity on the left side of her brain, confirming earlier suspicions. She was stabilized with medication and discharged from the hospital while they determined the next steps for her care.

In March 2023, Maisyn, now 8 years old, underwent an ictal SPECT scan, an advanced test that maps blood flow in the brain during a seizure to help pinpoint its origin. This test is commonly used in preparation for epilepsy surgery when medications are ineffective.

Dr. Charria coordinated the test at a trusted facility in Austin. While Maisyn was hooked up to an EEG, a contrast dye was injected at the onset of a seizure. The scan showed that Maisyn's seizure activity wasn’t confined to one area but spread across the left side of her brain.

Dr. Charria explained that her seizures were clustered all over the left side, not just in a single focal point, Megan said. That made surgery a lot more complex.

Throughout the process, Maisyn’s neurology team at CHRISTUS Children’s collaborated closely with specialists in Austin to interpret the results and guide her care. At that point, Dr. Charria recommended monitoring Maisyn’s progress as she approached puberty, when seizure patterns can shift. But for Megan, the idea of waiting years—especially with Maisyn being 7 at the time—was hard to accept.

A year later, Maisyn was still having nighttime seizures, prompting Dr. Charria to recommend a MEG scan, or a magnetoencephalography, in April 2024. The MEG measured the brain’s magnetic fields with extreme precision, helping doctors map the origins of her seizures and assess her brain’s real-time function.

SPECT and MEG scans are both powerful tools used in the pre-surgical evaluation for epilepsy, and they complement each other by providing different types of information about what’s happening in the brain, said Dr. Charria. Together, the SPECT and MEG scans painted a comprehensive picture of Maisyn’s condition. The SPECT showed increased blood flow during seizure clusters across the left hemisphere, while the MEG identified two to three key areas, offering a more precise surgical target.

These cutting-edge tests, combined with the expert collaboration between CHRISTUS Children’s and specialists in Austin, gave Megan something she hadn’t had in three years of trying to find treatment for Maisyn —a clear path forward.

The Plan for Surgery – Path to a Seizure-Free Life

In May 2024, after reviewing Maisyn’s SPECT and MEG scan results, Dr. Charria and Dr. Lee confirmed that her seizures were coming from one specific area on the left side of her brain. They proposed a two-step plan: a weeklong hospital stay to first pinpoint the seizure source, then treat it with surgery.

The first step was a stereo-EEG (sEEG)—a minimally invasive procedure where electrodes are placed in the brain to record electrical activity and precisely locate where the seizures begin. Maisyn was the first patient at CHRISTUS Children’s to undergo this advanced monitoring.

It was scary as a mom, Megan said. But I trusted the team completely. They walked us through everything.

The sEEG results confirmed Maisyn was a strong candidate for laser ablation, a modern, less invasive surgery that uses heat from a laser to destroy the seizure-causing brain tissue.

Laser ablation is a great option for patients who don’t respond to medication, explained Dr. Lee. Because we could identify the exact spot in Maisyn’s brain, it gave us a precise target for surgery—with the goal of stopping her seizures for good.

Maisyn was admitted in July 2024. After being taken off her medications to provoke a seizure for monitoring, doctors confirmed the seizures were coming from a focal area in the insula, a deep structure in the brain. On July 18, she underwent the three-hour laser ablation procedure. Dr. Lee had cautioned that some weakness on her left side was possible due to the location, but he remained hopeful.

Everything went well, he told Megan after surgery. We successfully targeted and treated the area. Now, we hope this gives her a seizure-free future.

A Seizure-free Life

The results have been life changing. Since the surgery, Maisyn has been seizure-free.

It’s been a complete turnaround, Megan says. She’s doing things she hasn’t been able to do for years, and for the first time in a long time, I can see the old Maisyn again. She’s more confident, more engaged at school, and she’s back to being the happy, vibrant girl we always knew she was.

For Megan, the journey has been long, filled with fear and doubt—but also hope, strength, and unshakable love.

I tell everyone—CHRISTUS Children’s didn’t just treat her epilepsy; they gave her childhood back. They gave us our Maisyn back. We are so grateful for the doctors, nurses, and everyone who took care of her.

Learn more about the Neuroscience Center at CHRISTUS Children’s in San Antonio.