Michael (above left) and Paul (above right) have Moyamoya disease.  It’s a narrowing of the arteries that starves the brain of oxygen, which causes strokes. Left unattended, it can result in paralysis.

Michael was diagnosed first, and had brain surgery at a local hospital. But when Paul was experiencing the same stroke-like symptoms months later, the family immediately took him to Children’s Hospital Boston after learning about Children’s world-renowned neurologist, Michael Scott, MD.

Only 5 other families
That day, the Lyons learned they were the sixth family in the United States to have two children with Moyamoya.

“All I did was cry, every day, all day,” Robin said. “You can’t believe it’s happening to your family—again.”

Delicate neurosurgery
But the family knew they were in good hands with Scott and a technique he perfected. Scott takes an artery that runs along a child’s scalp, and frees it from tissue. He then creates a window to the skull to place the artery directly on the brain’s surface. Stitches finer than human hair tie the artery to the brain. Those roots, or arteries, feed the brain with the oxygen it was craving before the surgery.

“These arteries, they’re like putting a graft on a tree and waiting for the roots to spread into the trunk,” Scott says. “That’s what the operation does.”

It’s working
It worked for Paul—and for Michael, whom Dr. Scott also operated on. The Lyons family is grateful to Children’s.  “When I was at Children’s with Dr. Scott, I didn’t have that scared feeling,” Robin says. “I just believed in him. I knew he’d save my boys, and he did.”

To give thanks and support Children’s lifesaving work for children, the Lyons family joined last year’s Miles for Miracles Walk, raising $4,305 for the hospital. 

If you too would like to walk for Children’s, please visit the Walk area of this Web site.

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