'He's better than ever': Child recovers from seizures after neurosurgery

ST GEORGE — Owen Jacobsen is a bright 12-year-old, actively involved in his school council, band, swim team and mathcount team. But what sets him apart? Its flexibility.

Early last year, Owen began having vague seizures.

“He started telling me he was having some strange sensations in his left arm,” said his mother, Rindi Jacobsen. “One morning, sitting next to me, he had a full-blown grand mal seizure, and it lasted for a long time. It was really scary.”

Doctors found a cyst in Owen's brain; They felt that this was the cause of the seizure and was an isolated incident. But despite medication, the episodes worsened.

“It was happening every other day or sometimes every day,” said Rindi Jacobsen. “He started learning to just yell, 'Seizure!' If I hear him shout, my heart starts beating that we are always one.

He also had one at school.

“My hand started shaking uncontrollably,” Owen said. “It was very scary not knowing when or where they were going to happen, so I was sometimes afraid to leave my mother's side.”

Owen had to take a break from sports and school and started online classes at home instead.

After Owen's father instructed him to pay close attention to the scan, doctors found a small tumor hidden in the cyst.

“This place in his brain is directly connected to the left side of his body and his movements, and it started to interfere so much that he could feel it in his arms and hands,” said Rindi Jacobsen.

Owen was sent to Primary Children's Hospital, where he was referred to pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Meet Robert Bolo. Bollo recommended that Owen undergo a high-tech procedure called laser interstitial thermal therapy, which is less invasive than the typical craniotomy surgery and is offered in only a few children's hospitals around the country.

“It's a laser surgery where we use a robot to insert a laser probe into the tumor and ablate or destroy it,” Bolo said. “A small incision, a stitch and that's it.”

Owen underwent surgery in September 2023 and has not had any problems since.

“That's the last time he felt anything in his arm or had any seizures,” Jacobsen said. “We kept waiting for that to happen and he kept getting seizure free day by day.”

Recovery hasn't been easy – Randy Jacobsen said it took him a while to “bounce back” – Owen is feeling like himself again, back to doing the things he loves.

“Here we are a year later, Owen is back to normal, thriving; he's better than ever,” Jacobsen said.

Primary Children's Hospital was ranked first in the nation for neurology and neurosurgery patient outcomes for the third year in a row, according to US News & World Report.