Video 3
Video 1
Video 2
31 December 2013
5 September 2014
After around three month from the day we started working with Karam, the tumor on his upper eyelid was reduced in size as shown in the comparative photos below, the photo on the right was taken at the last day of the year 2013, the one on the left was taken around three months of working with Karam. At the same time the tumor on Karam's back that developed after the 2008 surgery, and deprived him from laying on his back, started diminishing until it disappeared completely. The work with Karam is still in progress.
The 2008 surgery was conducted in a hospital in Egypt after which Karam started gradually losing control over the lower part of his body, below his belly button, and within the following 4 months he had been gradually losing feeling and movement in that part of his body and he was losing control over the functions of urination and defecation. His parents took him to two neurologists in Qatar Emirate, Doha, and both physicians told his parents that they had nothing to offer the child and they advised them to take their son home and "wait for God's mercy".
The child ended up paralyzed completely from belly button down, and spent the last six years tied to his recliner, and meanwhile he developed another benign tumour above the scar area shown in the photo, and the tumour on his right eyelid developed again. And because of the lack of activity and poor eating habits karam's muscle atrophy to a degree that he needed to support his head by his hand most of the time to keep it from dangling to his chest! And he started to develop more brown stains on several location of his skin.
After being examined by specialists in Egypt (below the reports in English) Karam underwent two more surgeries in his brain, one in 2004 (see the photo below). He was examined again in 2008 in Egypt by professor of pathology at Ain Shams Faculty of Medicin Dr. Ahmed A. El Tawil (see his report below) and by professor of neurosurgery at Ain Shams University Dr. Husein Moharram (see his report below). Karam was operated on again (see the photo below). After that examination they operated on his brain, and on the way they removed a benign tumour that developed on upper back (see the photo below that shows the scar left on his back)
Karam underwent several surgeries reducing the size of the upper eyelid tumour.
Later, Karam started developing other symptoms, deformation of parts of his spine and his nervous system, in both of the central and the peripheral nervous systems.
He developed several tumour, one of them behind the right eyeball that pushed his eyeball outward and deformed the optic nerve and the structure of the right eye ball.
Below are the report of the two physicians who did the MRI and CT scan for all part and organs of his body and diagnosed the disease. The reports issued by Abbasieen Hospital in Damascus, Syria, and the physicians are Dr. Saeed Haweejah and Dr. Mahmoud Alka'ar. We will translate those document into English soon. The reports reflect on how much damage the disease left on his brain, spinal cord , peripheral nervous system, and on his spine .
Karam, Photo 1, before developing the symptoms
Karam, Photo 3, the tumour developed severely.
Karam, Photo 2, the tumour in an "early" stage.
Karam Shehabi was born carrying the mutated gene that caused Neurofibromatosis symptoms to develop with time. Karam was born showing no signs of the disease, only a few square millimeters of light redness on his right upper eyelid, nothing els, photo 1 below.
As Karam grew his right upper eyelid started "swelling" until it became like half a tines ball of flesh stuck to his right upper eye lid that covered the right eye completely. as seen in photos 2 and 3.
Karam Shehabi case:
Introduction:
Neurofibromatosis (NF) refers to a number of inherited conditions that are clinically and genetically distinct and carry a high risk of tumor formation, particularly in the brain.
Neurofibromatosis is an autosomal dominant disorder, which means only one copy of the affected gene is needed for the disorder to develop. Therefore, if only one parent has neurofibromatosis, his or her children have a 50% chance of developing the condition as well.
The severity in affected individuals can vary; this may be due to variable expressivity. It affects males and females equally. In addition, some individuals may have mosaic NF, in which some but not all cells of the body carry the mutation. The neurofibromatoses are as follows:
1-Neurofibromatosis type I, in which the nerve tissue grows tumors (neurofibromas) that may be benign and may cause serious damage by compressing nerves and other tissues.
2-Neurofibromatosis type II, in which bilateral acoustic neuromas (tumors of the vestibulocochlear nerve or cranial nerve 8 (CN VIII) also known as schwannoma) develop, often leading to hearing loss.
3-Schwannomatosis, in which painful schwannomas develop on cranial, spinal and peripheral nerves.
Neurofibromatosis Disease
The fundamentals of our approach to restore body functions for people affected by damage to their nervous system are:
1-Brain Plasticity: the human brain has the ability to rewire itself and build new neuro-pathways to restore the lost function cause by injury.
2-New nervous tissue can be generated, new stem cells can be differentiated.
3-New synapses are being generated in any given moment, and this process can be "enhanced" and "guided".
Nervous System Injuries and diseases
Video 4
After the 2004 Brain surgery
After the 2008 surgery.
The photo shows the scar left on his back as a result of operating on the benign tumour on his upper back in 2008, Egypt.
Our Intervention:
Depending on the Pillars of Our Approach we started working with Karam on three levels:
1) Addressing the genetic cause.
2) Restoring control over the lost functions resulted from the last (2008) surgery, by "rewiring his brain" to regain control over the motor neurones first.
3) Removing a tumor on his back, and reducing the tumor on his upper eyelid.
We started working on Karam's case in June 2014, and after around six week of our intervention we noticed the first involuntary (unconscious) movement of his left foot. It was a subtle movement in his left foot (Second 4 in video 1) that gave us the first indication that his nervous system has been responding properly. After another couple of session his left leg started moving involuntarily (see video 2). After around four months Karam surprised us by the first conscious movement of his torso and legs' muscles when he pushed down his recliner's foot rest (video 3). And after around five and a half months Karam surprised us again by moving his leg while laying on the bench in the gym (video 4) where he started doing exercises to strengthen the muscle of his arms, torso and neck. (below are the videos recorded by his father's mobile phone documenting Karam's achievements.)