This is SO unique!
A 28-year-old woman named Christina Santhouse has both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree, she owns her own home, she got married two years ago… and she is missing the entire right half of her brain!!
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The speech pathologist was a normal kid growing up, until her incredible story started in the third grade, when she was diagnosed with a rare disease called Rasmussen’s encephalitis.
Had it gone untreated, it would have killed her, and after Christina started getting massive amounts of seizures — nearly 150 each day — doctors knew it was time to operate on the then 8-year-old girl.
Unfortunately, that meant removing half her brain!!!
Christina’s mother Lynne Catarro, speaking to the Philadelphia Inquirer, remembers her feelings during the surgery very well, even to this day:
“I had never heard of surgery like that before. It was very barbaric. You can live with one kidney, but whoever thought you could live with half a brain?”
But live with half a brain Christina has, and after a 14-hour operation — that was performed by none other than current presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson — and lots of rehabilitation and recovery, she turned right back into a normal kid.
A driver’s license at 17 years old, a star on the bowling team, Christina even went away to college and excelled in all her classes, eventually meeting and later marrying her husband Vince Paravecchia a couple years ago.
Now, Christina is pretty open about the whole thing, and her push to live life:
“I was full steam ahead. I wasn’t going to let [surgery] stop me.”
Amazing!!
Here’s to you, Christina!
[Image via Philadelphia Inquirer.]
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