medical-marvel–184557

Jamie after surgery December 2016. A medical student who has undergone eleven neurological operations in her lifetime said assisting in brain surgery to help children with her condition was a humbling opportunity. See SWNS story NYBRAIN. Jamie Wright, 30, was diagnosed with hydrocephalus when she was four months old, a condition which causes a buildup of cerebral fluid in the brain. The aspiring physician-scientist, from The Colony, Texas, has lived with a ventriculoperitoneal shunt since she was two, a medical device drains the excess fluid in the brain to relieve pressure. The shunt, which drains the excess fluid into Jamie’s stomach, had to be revised in a procedure when she was six, and twice again when she was in high school. In the past two years, Jamie has undergone seven neurological surgeries to treat her hydrocephalus, including an unsuccessful endoscopic third ventriculostomy in 2016, which would have allowed her to live without her shunt. Jamie, who is an MD/PHD student in University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, had the opportunity to go on a medical mission to Haiti to help children living with her condition in 2014.