By Gerri Miller
Elmore/Autauga News Staff Writer
On this Memorial Day 20 ago, I was sitting in a hospital waiting room in Melbourne, Australia, while one of the top neurosurgeons in the world operated for nine straight hours on our daughter Marissa Miller. She was eight-years-old.
At that time, she was having dozens of seizures daily while suffering from some serious endocrine issues. Under these circumstances I should have been extremely nervous.
But there was a peace within me that came with the help of the River Region community and its outpouring of love, prayers and support. A 24-hour prayer vigil was held for her in our home church of Millbrook First United Methodist Church (MFUMC).
Millbrook’s own Santa Clause, Bob Headrick, created a website for Marissa where hundreds of people, many of whom I had never met, wrote to us and prayed for Marissa. There were spaghetti dinners, yard sales, concerts, motorcycle rides, baseball tournaments and so many more events in Millbrook, Montgomery and Prattville that helped get us to Australia so that Marissa could have this life-saving surgery.
The surgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Rosenfeld, was operating in a region so deep in the brain that we were told the tumor shouldn’t be disturbed. She already had two surgeries at UAB that only made her condition worse. Dr. Rosenfeld developed a method to get to the tumor going through the small space between the two halves of the brain.
We had exhausted our options to get her help here and things were going downhill fast. Her doctors here advised against us taking her and one even said we would be bringing her home in a box. But the thing is, I had found a group of parents through the internet who all had children with the rare condition called a hypothalamic hamartoma. At the time we were told it affects one in a million people.
One of the children was from Adelaide, Australia, and had successfully undergone Dr. Rosenfeld’s surgery. Her cognitive function improved greatly and she stopped having seizures. Then parents from all over the world began bringing their children to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne for surgery. We kept reading about so many success stories that we decided to send her MRIs over to see if they could help her.
We found out that she was a prime candidate for the surgery and they quickly moved to put her on the surgery schedule. She would have the surgery in six weeks!
I knew we would have to have help from the community to make it happen. I approached Brenda Kelly, who was then with the Millbrook News, about doing a story in the paper. She wrote a detailed and beautiful story that let the community know what was going on.
Our pastor at the time, Dan Morris, got the ball rolling by creating a committee for the cause. Marissa’s Girl Scout leader, Susan Waldrop and Rob Houston were in charge of finances. Jab Brown of MFUMC headed up events.
Donations came in from community organizations, other churches and even children from Robinson Springs School, who saved all of their pennies and brought them to school for Marissa.
I wasn’t prepared for the overwhelming media coverage that all of events brought. I was a fairly quiet and shy person at the time (not anymore!) and was terrified to go on television. I found it is different, though when you are talking about saving your child’s life. The need is greater than the terror and I overcame my fear.
It didn’t take this community long to raise the funds needed for our trip and before we knew it, we were on our way. My husband had never been on an airplane before and was terrified to fly. His first flight was 19 hours long. Again, the need was greater than the terror!
I started having doubts the morning of the scheduled surgery. I was so afraid of losing my baby girl. But while we were crossing the street to get to the hospital, she had a seizure and fell in the busy road. We both came dangerously close to getting hit by an oncoming tram. I managed to pull her over to the sidewalk until the seizure was over. I knew then that the surgery had to happen or we would end up losing her.
I had perfect peace from that point on. I was able to briefly talk to one of the ladies from church and she told me about the prayer vigil and how they always had someone at the alter praying. There is so much power in prayer.
The surgeon finally came to talk to us and had great news. He was able to remove 90 percent of the tumor, but more importantly, he was able to disconnect it from the hypothalamus. The connection was what was causing the seizures. He also said she had an excessive buildup of fluid on her brain from her previous surgeries that he was able to remove.
Marissa was in the hospital for a week but even after her release, she would need to return to the hospital nearly every day for appointments with various specialists for the next six weeks. All of these doctors – from endocrinologists and neurologists to neuropsychologists – met daily as a team to review her progress.
We boarded a plane bound for LA, then Atlanta, wearing winter clothes on the third of July. We headed home from Atlanta and were greeted at the City Limits sign by the Millbrook police. They were there to give us an escort home. There were people lining the streets waving at us, fire trucks and the blue ribbons which had come to symbolize Marissa’s journey were hanging everywhere.
I cried tears of joy at the sight of the welcome party. I couldn’t believe there were so many loving people in our community who cared about Marissa. She had truly become the city’s child.
Marissa never had another seizure after that morning trying to get to the hospital.
Now, 20 years later, she is a college graduate, has a great tech support job and is getting married on Saturday to her soulmate Max Culp. Most importantly, she has a love for Christ and the people of this community who helped save her life.
I will always believe this is the greatest community to live in because people not only care for one another but take actions to show it. I wish I could name everyone who helped us but it would be impossible. Just know that our family loves and appreciates each and every one of you.
