READER’S DIGEST
May• 2019 | 123Reyes would treat Conner at her clin-
ic. He would be part of an expanded
research cohort, monitored for long-
term safety implications.
“Tell us when we need to be there,”
Hollie replied.
Then she called Jeff, who was
driving a semitrailer and didn’t
immediately pick up. When he no-
ticed several urgent
notifications on his
screen, he pulled over
and called his wife
back. “I cried my eyes
out,” Jeff recalled. “You
have no hope. Then
you get the call.”
Conner’s surgery
was scheduled for
May 22. The morning
of the procedure, Hol-
lie reassured Conner,
who seemed scared of
going into a big, cold
room without his par-
ents. “You’re going to
go to sleep, and when you wake up,
you’ll see us,” Hollie said, giving her
son a kiss. “Everything will be OK.”
After Conner was put under, a sur-
geon sliced through the first layer
of skin on the right side of the little
boy’s forehead. Next came antisep-
tic, followed by a local anaesthetic,
and the surgeon made a second cut
through muscle.
Once the blood was cleared away,
the surgeon drilled through bone,
then penetrated the dura, the thin
grey layer of tissue that envelops the
brain. The surgeon double-checked
that he was in the right place, then
picked up a small plastic dome
attached to a thin tube containing a
catheter.
The surgeon guided the tube into
Conner’s brain until the dome was
f lush with Conner’s skull. This was
the port where TPP1
would be injected
every other week.
From there the en-
zyme would f low
through the cathe-
ter and soak Con-
n e r ’s b r a i n.
After a doctor
stitched Conner’s
scalp back togeth-
er, the little boy
was brought out of
anaesthesia. Hollie
and Jeff were allowed
to see him. “Hi, bud-
dy,” Jeff said softly at
his bedside. The Beishes climbed up
on either side of their son, where they
stayed while he slept.
Conner went home three days lat-
er. Two weeks later, Hollie took him
back for his first infusion. Her father,
Bruce, went with them. Jeff stayed
behind to throw Jaxon his eighth
birthday party. As ever, the Beishes
tried to keep their lives normal.
When the medical staff attempted
to access the reservoir in Conner’s
scalp with a needle, there was stillIn the
coming
weeks,
Conner
would learn
tofeed
himselfand
say “Da”
for Jeff