The last seven months for Camila Nino began with a headache.
"I was in pre-athletics class," said Camila, 12. "Around like 12:45 [p.m.] I started to have like a really bad headache."
The Calallen Middle Schooler soon collapsed in class and was taken to the nurse’s office.
"The nurse assessed her," mother Cristal Nino said, "and realized she had full left-sided weakness, wasn't able to stand … couldn't grip the nurse's hand with her left hand. Very slurred speech."
All signs showed that the twelve-year-old had suffered an ischemic stroke.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 85% of strokes are ischemic, in which blood flow to the brain is blocked.
"[Stroke] was just a word to me," Camila said. "When I hear about a stroke … I'm interested in it because it happened to me."
She spent three weeks at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi after she suffered her stroke. That same day, she had surgery to remove the blood clot. Two days later, she had a craniectomy to remove part of her skull, to relieve pressure from her brain swelling. That piece of her skull was surgically put back on two weeks later.
She later went to TIRR Memorial Herrmann, a hospital in Houston for rehabilitation. There, the family learned that back-to-back illnesses may have led to Camila’s stroke. She had been sick with the flu twice, both cases within weeks of each other.
"In focal cerebral arteriopathy, what we think happens with kids is there may be some sort of infection that happens a week or two weeks before," said Dr. Stuart Fraser, a pediatric neurologist and stroke neurologist with TIRR Memorial Hermann and UT Health Houston. “[The infection] leads to reactivation of some viruses … That irritates one of the arteries in the brain and then can cause blood clots to form, which eventually is what causes stroke."
Fraser, who's on a first-name basis with Camila, said she faced her challenges with hope and the right attitude.
"She would say, ‘Hey Stuart! What’s up? Look what I can do.," he said. "Then she would maybe move her arm. Or I remember the first time she raised her arm; she was really excited to show us. Or the first time she walked, I think she was convinced she'd be the world's best walker."
That determination also shows in Camila’s recovering left hand, which she has nicknamed "Beyoncé."
Fraser said that pediatric strokes are not uncommon. Research shows perinatal strokes occur in one out of 1,100 babies at birth. He added that childhood strokes can happen to one in 20,000 kids per year.
"It's not as rare as you think," he said. "By some definitions, it probably wouldn't even count as a rare disease of childhood."
Camila’s schedule was once filled with sports – basketball, jujitsu, flag football, volleyball. While it still has physical activity, nowadays, her focus is on rehabilitation.
"We’re not just leaving and coming and going because she has another practice or another function to attend" Cristal Nino said. "Now, it's doctor's appointments and you know, therapies and scheduled MRIs."
She’s adapted to daily living with one working hand, and continues to make progress.
"I had to put in a lot of work at therapy," Camila said. "I’m still having to put in a lot of work."
Throughout the journey, Camila has had a community behind her. Friends and family have stepped up. A GoFundMe account helps offset medical expenses and recovery needs. She also receives lots of encouraging words.
"I had 200-and-something messages from friends," Camila said.
And the 12-year-old wants to deliver a message of her own: that she will be able to use her left arm again.
"She will overcome this," Cristal Nino said. "It's going to take a lot of hard work and rehabilitation to push through them, so that she can get function of this arm and hand again."
As Camila continues to work with "Beyoncé," she plans to continue to show off the "irreplaceable" hope that she has for her future.
