At eight years, Christina Santhouse arrived to have up to 150 seizures in one day.
It was no longer a situation that drugs could control.
Christina suffered from Rasmussen's encephalitis, a rare neurological disease that was seriously damaging a hemisphere of her brain.
The doctors were in front of an extreme choice.
To save her life, they offered the family an intervention of about 14 hours: a hemiferectomy, an operation that would lead to the removal of the right hemisphere.
Christina was only eight years old.
His parents explained that, even if he survived, no one could predict what life he would expect after the surgery.
The operation succeeded.
But the most surprising part of his story began later.
The remained hemisphere began to adapt, assuming many of the functions previously performed by the removed hemisphere.
It is an extraordinary capacity of the nervous system, called neuroplasticity: the brain can change its organization and create new paths to compensate for compromised functions. In children this ability can be particularly significant, because the brain is still being developed.
Christina had to live with some consequences. Lost part of the ability to move on the left side of the body.
But his personality, his memories and his cognitive abilities were surprisingly preserved.
And, above all, his life did not stop at that operating room.
Christina finished high school.
Then he continued his studies until he obtained a master's degree.
Finally, he chose a profession that seems to give his history an even deeper meaning: he became a logopedist, devoting his work to helping others.
As a child he needed someone to bet on his brain's ability to find new ways.
As an adult, he chose to help others find their own.
The doctors had to remove a hemisphere of his brain to give her a chance to survive.
What no operation could establish, however, was how far it would have managed to arrive with the half left.