Narre Warren North champion hockey player Eve Carter has remarkably overcome a neurological condition that posed a risk to her life and limbs and has made the state schools hockey team in what doctors say has been an extraordinary recovery.
Eve Carter was 14 when she started to experience tingling and numbness in her hands and feet, and back pain.
It was only her mum Julie’s intuition and experience with another family member who had a neurological issue that prompted her to seek medical help.
The family went to Monash Health at Clayton where an MRI was performed and they were told that Eve was suffering from a chiari malformation.
This is a condition where the lowest part of the brain at the base of the skull bulges through the opening that meets the spinal canal.
A chiari 1 malformation is not a particularly uncommon condition and most are detected by accident, rather than because of the symptoms.
However, in a smaller percentage of more severe cases, development of a syrinx, or fluid filled cyst in the spinal cord can occur over time, which is what Eve had.
Left without treatment, a syrinx can progress to the point of damaging the spinal cord by compressing the nerve fibres that carry information to and from the brain.
Symptoms include numbness or tingling in the hands and feet, sore neck and can also lead to muscle weakness.
Symptoms can develop insidiously and initially be easily missed.
Eve’s syrinx was so extensive, extending from her upper cervical cord to the lower thoracic cord, that she was admitted to hospital directly and underwent surgery the next day.
Monash Health neurosurgeon, Dr Juliet Clayton operated on Eve and said while the condition itself is not rare, the severity of Eve’s syrinx at presentation was quite unusual.
“It was clear that Eve would require surgery to decompress her chiari malformation and prevent the syrinx from becoming even worse,“ she said.
“I was worried enough about the size and extent of the syrinx that I felt she should stay in hospital to have the surgery urgently rather than wait any longer.
“Eve was at risk of developing further potentially irreversible neurological signs in her arms without surgery and our team were keen to get on with surgery to enable Eve to return to her passion, her hockey, as soon as possible without any further opportunity for neurological progression”.
Patients with a chiari malformation are usually advised not to play high impact contact sports, due to the small possibility of a significant neurological injury in the context of the crowding and loss of fluid space at the junction between the brain and spinal cord, associated with this diagnosis.
When Eve learnt of her diagnosis and the need for surgery, she was devastated at the thought of not being able to play hockey, especially as she had a very important tournament coming up just the next week which she would not be able to participate in.
However, following uncomplicated surgery and a few weeks of recovery Eve was back to playing the sport she loves and has set her sights high.
Now at 15, she has already made the state school representative team and recently played with the Southern Sharks Junior State Championship team.
“Amazingly, Eve was back playing hockey three months later and is now completely cured,“ Dr Clayton said.
“Her recovery was faster than we all thought it would be.“
Eve’s mum, Julie said it still frightens her to think about what could have happened.
“Eve was just one knock away from potentially being paralysed, or worse,” she said.
“It’s not like she had severe symptoms where we immediately knew something was wrong.
“It was gradual, and could easily have been mistaken for something less serious.”
