Medics stunned by 4-year-old Cian’s progress after 10-hour brain surgery

A BRAVE little boy has stunned medics by walking and talking just days after a brain operation.

Cian O’Brien, aged four, from Upton, Co Cork, has been transferred to Cork University Hospital (CUH) less than a week after a 10-hour surgical procedure in Dublin to control his debilitating epileptic seizures.

But yesterday, a smiling Cian, dressed in his favourite Bob the Builder pyjamas, walked hand-in-hand with his devoted mum Kate from CUH’s children’s ward to the hospital’s front door.

“This day last week we were watching the clock wondering if he’d come out of the operation alive,” Cian’s relieved aunt Clare said last night.

“It’s a miracle. He’s such a fighter. We’re just amazed at how quickly he has recovered. The nurses in Dublin were stunned.”

Cian was born with cerebral palsy and was diagnosed with intractable epilepsy when he was two.

The epilepsy was under control with medication until March, but it worsened. Cian was suffering up to 400 seizures a day and he had to wear a helmet to protect his head.

He captured the heart of the nation three weeks ago when Kate was forced to go public to highlight his plight after the brain operation was postponed.

Finally, last Thursday, it went ahead. Cian spent 10 hours on an operating table in Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital as neurosurgeons split the damaged right side of his brain from the left side in the hope that it will control his epileptic seizures.

He was only the second child in Ireland to undergo the procedure within the last five years.

Surgeons were happy with the operation but expected Cian to lose the use of his left leg. It was also expected that he would have been hospital for up to two months.

But he has recovered so well, he was transferred to CUH on Wednesday.

He will undergo speech therapy over the coming days and doctors will readjust his epilepsy medication.

It is hoped that he will be well enough to go home in time for his fifth birthday later this month.

Kate said she has been overwhelmed with the level of public support.

“I never expected this level of support – it has been so overwhelming.

“So many people were out there rooting for him. All of those prayers were answered.

“I want to say a massive thank you to everyone for the support.

“I cannot say how grateful I am to everyone and for all the letters I received from the public and the well wishers who approached us on the streets. It is so heart warming to see such kindness in people.”