Hoping to find a cure for daily seizures, decorated ROTC cadet undergoes brain surgery in NYC

Riverhead High School senior and NJROTC cadet Anthony Mammina has had quite an amazing year.

One week after being awarded the Meritorious Achievement Award, the highest award a cadet can receive, for his life-saving actions at a track meet in September, Anthony was in the operating room at NYU Medical Center undergoing brain surgery, hoping to alleviate the seizures that have affected him since he was five years old.

The initial procedure, performed on Jan. 24, by Dr. Howard Weiner, pediatric neurosurgeon at NYU Medical Center, was to open the skull and place electrodes in critical areas of the brain as part of an advanced electroencephalography, which monitors seizure activity. Most EEG leads are cemented on the outside of the skull and the information is processed on a computer and read by a neurologist to determine if a patient has seizures.

In Anthony’s case they know from previous external monitoring and from daily occurrences that this bright-eyed and energetic young man suffers between three and four clinical seizures every day. Part of the information gained from this more invasive type of procedure is the ability to monitor what is referred to as sub-clinical seizures, which are not visible on the outside, but nonetheless put the brain at risk.

Anthony’s mother, Jenn Mammina, explained that they had exhausted many other options including the high fat, ketone diet, and a combination of many different types of anti-convulsive medications. Over the last two years, their neurologist at NYU’s Epilepsy Center was suggesting that Anthony was a prime candidate for a temporal lobectomy. The surgery involves removing a part of the temporal lobe of the brain, which oftentimes drastically reduces or stops seizures. Jenn said that they just weren’t ready until last summer when Anthony expressed he was ready and she and her husband Joe agreed.

Within 24 hours of the initial surgery, the EEG showed that Anthony was having numerous subclinical seizures as well as the ones which were visible. The monitors revealed that Anthony’s seizures were much more widespread than previously thought, thus making him not a good candidate for the temporal lobectomy. It was decided they would continue the internal monitoring to gather more detailed information. Despite this disappointment, Anthony continued to be his cheerful, positive self, amazing the doctors and nurses on the pediatric ICU at NYU.

“One of the nurses confessed to me that she was pleasantly surprised when she met Anthony, expressing that he is definitely not a typical 17-year-old patient,” Anthony’s mom said. “All the doctors and nurses are very inspired by his positive attitude and outlook.”

On Monday, after a weekend of monitoring, Anthony woke up with intense headaches. When neurosurgions came into the room and saw the change, they immediately sent him for a CT scan, which revealed swelling in the brain. Within an hour, Anthony was in the operating room to remove the internal leads, and put him on medications to prevent infection and reduce the swelling.

While the Mamminas were a little disappointed that this surgical option would not work for Anthony, they said that they will continue to explore other options with the exceptional neuro team at NYU. Determination and hope run deep in the Mammina family.

“We know there is something out there for Anthony and we won’t give up,” Jenn Mammina said.

Prior to Anthony’s release from the hospital yesterday, the main question he had for his doctor was when he could get back to running. The neurosurgeon told him that he needed time to heal from these two surgeries, but when Anthony was ready, the doctor said he’d like to go for a run with him.

Photo captions, from top: 1. Anthony Mammina at NYU Medical Center, wired for the EEG that measured seizure activity in his brain; 2. Anthony Mammina with Navy Recruiting District – New York commanding officer John Skarin on Jan. 18, when he was presented with the Meritorious Achievement Award; Anthony Mammina running at the USA Track & Field Junior Olympics last July.