2 years after brain swelling scare, toddler is back to her spunky self

By Beret Leone

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    SHOREWOOD, Minnesota (WCCO) — Four-year-old Sydney Marcus is a fast-moving, spunky kiddo.

“[She was] just very chatty, mobile, running around, learning, just like a little sponge,” Sydney Marcus’ mom, Britta Marcus, said.

But one night two years ago, Sydney Marcus flipped like a light switch.

“It was kind of like a one-in-a-million fluke, essentially and her body reacted to it and started attacking itself,” Britta Marcus said. She says her toddler went to bed with a run-of-the-mill fever, cold and runny nose — and didn’t wake up. “It was just a overnight light switch of where she went from like a healthy, normal kid, and woke up unresponsive,” Britta Marcus said.

Sydney Marcus was rushed to the hospital where doctors determined a rare, inflammatory condition called cerebellitis was causing swelling, fluid and pressure build-up in her brain. The cause was a combination of common cold viruses. “It’s extremely rare. I mean, there’s there some case reports that we’ll talk about it being one in 500,000 and even one in a million, if million, it’s extremely rare,” Sydney Marcus’ neurosurgeon at Children’s Minnesota, Dr. Meysam Kebriaei, said.

Sydney Marcus underwent two emergency surgeries at Children’s Minnesota.

“They removed a small piece of her skull and put a drain into her fluid space to try to relieve the pressure that way,” Kebriaei said.

The next challenge came post-surgery: rehab. She had to relearn everything — from walking to talking to swallowing her food.

“It was literally starting over, like, with a newborn,” Sydney Marcus’ dad, Ross Marcus, said. “From a neurosurgical perspective, she’s 100% and, like, that’s, that’s the emotional piece, right? Like, we’re incredibly lucky to be in this situation.”

Thanks to physical therapy and rehab, Sydney Marcus is now returning to her spunky self.

“I think she’s going to have a bright future,” Kebriaei said.

These days, Sydney Marcus is busy blowing bubbles and chasing her two older sisters.

“We were just could not have been more impressed, truly, with the care, the diversity of thought and the consistency of like, their presence and their support of our family,” Ross Marcus said.

The Marcus family says it’s that support that saved their daughter’s life.

“Giving people hope is something you don’t have the opportunity to do a lot, and in those darkest moments, is what really pushes you through and really gets you through and helps you fight for your child, right? And if we can provide that, I mean, we will do it all day long,” Ross Marcus said.

Doctors say cerebellitis is rare and even more rare in children. Doctors reiterate a common cold is typically nothing to worry about.

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