Little Girl with Brain Aneurysm Saved by Superglue

When Ashlyn Julien's parents started noticing something different in the newborn's behavior, superglue would turn out to play a part in saving her life.

The 20-day-old baby girl started showing symptoms of a problem exhibited in her behavior, which shifted from being sleepy and quiet to crying very loudly.

"She was probably around 10 days old, and she was sleeping a lot, and I understand that babies sleep a lot, but to the point that you couldn't wake her up to feed her," Gina Julian, the baby's mother explained according to CNN Newswire. "We [went] from a baby that was very quiet to a baby that was screaming all the time and throwing up, and at that point we knew something was very wrong."

Doctors at the Children's Mercy South, located in Kansas City, noticed that Ashlyn had a small, raised bump on her head in the fontanel region. An ultrasound later revealed that the child had a small aneurysm, the size of an olive.

An entire team of surgeons worked together to repair the bleeding in the child's brain. First, they inserted a catheter into Ashlyn's blood vessel on her right hip, according to The Daily Mail. The catheter was then used to navigate through her vessel all the way up to her neck. A microcatheter was used to navigate through the vessel and up into her brain next to the aneurysm. According to the doctors, all it took to seal the vessel was a little bit of superglue, and within less than 45 minutes, it stopped bleeding.

"It's literally the same compound as the superglue you'd find in the store," Ebersole said according to The Kansas City Star. "I think she's going to have a perfectly normal life."

The doctors are optimistic for Ashlyn's recovery, who believe she can lead a normal life following the incident.

However, aneurysms can be very deadly at any age. Boston Children's Hospital writes that aneurysms form when the walls of a blood vessel weaken and dry out. This can form a sack-like appendage, a one-sided bulge or the enlargement of an entire brain artery. In children, the most common identifiable causes of an aneurysm are severe trauma and infection. 

Make sure to look out for certain symptoms if you notice your child is exhibiting strange behavior.