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For years, Google Search has been a go-to solution for everything from education to daily tasks. While it often helps identify symptoms of health issues, experts warn it should never replace professional medical advice, as self-diagnosis can be dangerous. Yet, in an extraordinary twist, one late-night Google search helped a mother save her paralysed 6-year-old son.
The Frightening Collapse
Little Witten Daniel’s health spiralled shockingly fast. What began with dizziness and a headache soon escalated to paralysis, loss of speech, and inability to breathe. Doctors initially suspected the flu, but within just 24 hours, Witten lost consciousness, leaving his family in despair.
“There are no words to describe how horrifying it is to see your child in that kind of condition,” his mother Casey Daniel told KCBD. Doctors intubated him and discovered a far more dangerous issue - a rare cluster of leaking blood vessels lodged in his brainstem.
A Rare and Dangerous Diagnosis
The condition, cavernous malformation or cavernoma, affects roughly 1 in 500 people, according to Alliance to Cure. Most live symptom-free, but in some cases, it triggers seizures, bleeding, headaches, vision problems, or paralysis. Around 20% of patients inherit it genetically.
Casey was told that if Witten survived, he might never walk again and would rely on a ventilator and feeding tube permanently. Just weeks earlier, he had been named MVP of his Little League team- now his future seemed uncertain.
A Mother’s Determination and Google’s Role
Refusing to accept defeat, Casey turned to Google at night. That search connected her to an article by Dr Jacques Morcos, a neurosurgeon at UTHealth Houston known for treating cavernomas.
In desperation, she emailed him, and to her relief, he responded. “I looked at the images and I thought this can be done. I said let’s transfer you here,” Dr Morcos recalled.
Surgery, Recovery and a New Beginning
Witten was flown to Houston, where Dr Morcos and pediatric neurosurgeon Dr Manish Shah performed a complex four-hour brain surgery. The outcome defied all odds: within hours, Witten was awake, breathing without support, and speaking again.
Six weeks later, he celebrated his 7th birthday at home in Lubbock. Today, he attends second grade and has returned to baseball. “I want to say thank you to Dr Morcos and Dr Shah for letting me see my friends again,” Witten shared.
Dr Shah joked, “We told him the only condition to playing ball was to send us pictures.”
For Casey, the memory of those terrifying days lingers, but so does the miracle that a simple Google search brought into her family’s life.
