Greysi Valeria Colindres Aguilar
On Wednesday, February 26th the Honduran Patient Referral team arrived in Cedros to meet this vibrant 5 year old girl. Greysi came to the brigade in a neighboring town called Higueritos, where the Brandeis Medical Brigade wrote a referral for her.
In mid-August of 2013, Greysi's family began to notice that she was having difficulty standing up without holding on to something and her ability to walk, run, play vanished. Unfortunately, the family did not have any means to bring Greysi to the nearest hospital and waited until the next brigade came. Dr. Bruce, the Patient Referral Program Lead, was actually one of the doctors participating in this brigade with Brandeis University.
Greysi currently lives with 11 family members in their home. Her mother is living in Tegucigalpa because she works cleaning houses. Also, her father no longer lives in Honduras. She is cared for by her grandmother and her aunt. Greysi is the oldest of 3 children. She has a younger brother and a younger sister.
This precious 5 year old girl is full of life and joy. 
She loves having her picture taken and is giggling most of the time!
The patient referral team took Greysi on Wednesday, March 26th to see a pediatric orthopedic. After his consultation, he ordered a CT scan and an appointment with a neurologist. On Thursday, March 27th, Greysi had a CT scan and a consultation with a neurologist. The neurologist diagnosed her with hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) within cavities of the brain called ventricles.
Greysi's hydrocephalus needs to be treated rapidly as it can soon start affecting other parts of her body. On April 1st, the patient referral team took Greysi to see a neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon advised us that the best procedure for Greysi would be to do an endoscopic third ventriculostomy. This technique opens a hole inside the brain to re-establish effective flow of CSF. There are many advantages to this procedure over a shunt placement. A shunt would not need to be used in this case, lowering the risk of infection and occlusion. The endoscopic procedure alone costs a little over $3,500.
After the surgery, we will have to wait and see how her mobility has been affected by the hydrocephalus and possibly take little Greysi to see a physical therapist.
UPDATE: Due to the urgency of this case, Greysi had her procedure done on April 30th. Everything went well and on May 9th her stiches were removed by her neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon expects that within the next month, the inflammation in her brain will be greatly reduced. At this time, Greysi will need to go back and visit the orthopedic regarding her walking and lower extremities. We believe she will need orthotics and physical therapy. Once the patient referral team takes her to her next appointment, we will update on here what the next steps are for her recovery!
7/31/14 Update: The patient referral team went and visited Greysi with the Global Health Interns and were extremely excited to see Greysi slowly walking and being able to stand on her own. She is continuing to recover extremely well and we will soon be taking her to see an orthopedist in the near future!
Please consider helping Greysi! The updated cost of her entire case will be around $6000. This will cover all logistics and transportation, CT scans, MRIs, supplies, her surgery, medications, follow-up care, and physical therapy.
A big thank you to all the donors who helped us reach the point we are at now. A very special thank you to the Boston University Global Medical Brigades chapter for their donation! This donation was given on behalf of Dean Goldberg as a thank you and congratulations on his retirement from GlaxoSmithKline. Dean, a pharmacist, has traveled to Honduras and volunteered for many years with Boston University's Global Medical Brigades chapter! Also, thank you to Brandeis University for their continued support towards this case!
3/23/2015: As of March of this year, all of Greysi's operations were successful and have been completed. Case closed!
If you would like to know more about this case or want to get further involved,
please contact Grace Goryoka at grace.goryoka@globalbrigades.org