Laser Brain Surgery Gives Nurse a New Lease on Life

Since age 12, Callie Carter had been experiencing what she thought were episodes of anxiety. It wasn’t until her mid-30s that she discovered the real root of the problem. 

“I had had these episodes every month. Here I was actually having small seizures and didn’t know," Carter told Spectrum 1 News. 

After becoming a nurse in her 20s and enduring the frequent seizures, Carter’s biggest wake-up call finally came during her pregnancy in 2019. 

“When I was about to have my baby, I then had this big seizure. I was about to leave for work and all I remember is saying, 'I don’t feel very good.' Then I woke up in the hospital,” said Carter. 

That’s when she finally got diagnosed with epilepsy. 

This diagnosis led her to a team of specialists at OhioHealth, where Jason Bisping, MD, neurologist and epileptologist, and Girish Hiremath, MD, neurosurgeon, helped pinpoint the source of her seizures in an uncommon spot in her brain. 

To tackle the problem, they recommended laser ablation, a high-tech procedure that uses heat to destroy the brain tissue causing the seizures. 

“This allows us to offer a minimally invasive procedure that has relatively equivalent results in terms of people achieving seizure freedom without subjecting them to all the morbidity associated with like a huge operation on their brain,” said Dr. Hiremath. “The first surgery was partially successful, but there was still a second sort of part of the seizure network that was still active and was giving her seizures.” 

And adjusting to the role of the patient was a tough transition for Carter. 

“The hardest part was learning how to be the patient and not the nurse anymore. I think giving up that was probably the hardest that I had to deal with,” said Carter. 

Despite the challenges, she stayed focused and committed to her treatment. 

“I would say from the word go; Callie was extremely dedicated. She was laser focused on where we were going with this. And was ready to do whatever it was that we asked her,” said Dr. Bisping. 

Three years after her surgeries, Carter was finally seizure free. She left her nursing job to focus on her health, but eventually returned to work in a new role as a memory care nurse for Alzheimer’s patients in Zanesville. 

“It’s a whole new life. When people say that they have a second chance at life. This is what they mean,” said Carter. 

To learn more about neuroscience at OhioHealth, click here.