A mother shares her extraordinary journey of heartaches, hopelessness, and a surprise healing of her little daughter who had been registered blind but who fought against all odds to ‘cure herself.’
Evie-Mae Geurts,7, was born in Bristol with a condition called hydrocephalus, and at just a few months old, she was registered blind with the pressure inside her head 32 times the normal level.
Her mother, Amy, 28, said she was warned by doctors that the pressure in her head would damage her brain and that she would be blind forever and never be able to walk and talk.
But what is being called a miracle happened and not only is toddler, Evie able to see but is walking and talking and her hydrocephalus has disappeared since last year. Praise the Lord!
Amy said, “Evie is phenomenal. We’re so proud of her. The doctors admitted because of a delay in diagnosis, they weren’t sure what would happen.”
She adds, “They didn’t know if she’d ever be able to see or walk or talk. Now, she’s living shunt free, talking, walking and she’s ahead of her age in learning. They can’t understand – she was globally delayed and now all of a sudden, she’s very forward. She’s an amazing little girl, and so brave.”
The first time Evie was taken to Bristol Children’s Hospital was when a terrible cold caused red eyes in 2014. When the doctors shone a torch in her eyes, they found no visual response and concluded she was blind.
Meanwhile, Evie’s head was swelling and Amy kept taking her to the doctors thinking it could be hydrocephalus. She said, “I knew of hydrocephalus because my brother has it, and I thought that might be why she had no vision, but I was told I was wrong because she was a smiley baby.”
She adds, “Even though she was pulling her hair out, I was told that if she did have hydrocephalus, because she’d be worse.”
She decided to go to her brother’s neurosurgeon for help and he diagnosed Evie, aged eight months. She then went back to Bristol Children’s Hospital in April 2015 along with the diagnosis and waited for 10 hours till Evie was seen.
The doctors told her that Evie had a soft spot on her head that was full of fluid and she had surgery the next day. Amy said, “When she came out of the theatre the doctor said it was lucky that I brought her in when I did because she had really high pressure in her brain.”
The treatment for hydrocephalus is shunt surgery, which entails implanting a thin tube into the brain so that all the excess fluid can be drained away to another part of the body to be absorbed into the bloodstream.
A shunt was fitted in Evie’s brain to drain away all the excess fluid into her bladder and she returned home after that. Then the next year, she was able to gain back some vision since the shunts were working, it was unusual as Evie had been left untreated for a long time.
More miracles were in store for Evie as she started walking at age two and then learned Makaton, and started to speak. In April 2019, Evie Began getting headaches again and doctors drilled her skull to put in a needle. The pressure was 40 times higher than the normal limit and found that her shunt was blocked, they fitted a new one.
Amy said, “The scream she let out when they removed the needle,’ said Amy. “I’ll never forget it.”
The headaches returned in January 2021 but doctors miraculously found that Evie no longer needed the shunt as it was splitting the ventricles. Amy said, “The doctor couldn’t believe it – he thought we’d be in and out of the hospital every few years because the shunts kept blocking, but it turned out that somehow she’d cured herself!”
The doctors removes both the shunts in Evie’s brain, but Evie contracted viral meningitis and had to be hospitalized and treated with antibiotics for four days. Now Evie, 7, is living her best life with clear eyesight. She has to have eye tests every six months to monitor it but doctors are amazed at her progress.
Amy said, “They can’t believe it. They had to shave her hair back to access the devices so she refers to herself as Rapunzel. In the hairdressers, they told her she’d been brave and she said just like Eugene cuts Rapunzel’s hair to save her in Tangled, the doctors cut my hair off to save me. Evie is phenomenal,” she said.
“But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD” ~ Jeremiah 30:17
