FEATURE
PHOTO COURTESY OF ELIZABETH SCOTT
Liza sells lemonade at her family’s bakery, Savage’s in Homewood.
Liza’s Lemonade Eight-year-old sells cups of refreshment to offset her brain surgery expenses—and sweeten the days of customers
BY STEPHANIE GIBSON LEPORE During the early-morning hours of January 30, while most people in Birmingham were fast asleep, Elizabeth Scott’s daughter, Liza—then 7 years old—experienced a Grand Mal seizure. Delivered by ambulance to Children’s of Alabama, she was evaluated and released, only to suffer another seizure later that day. A return to the hospital yielded a weeklong stay, plus multiple MRIs, MRAs, EEGs, and a cerebral angiogram. “We learned that her abnormal brain activity was predominately while she was sleeping, and she would have convulsive seizures,” says Elizabeth. “The types she was having during the day weren’t as noticeable. She would zone out or maybe her writing would get messy. It was easy to 8 Bham Family August 2021
think she didn’t want to do her homework, or she was not listening to me. But she wasn’t in control. She didn’t even hear me.” Eventually, Liza received a diagnosis. To state it very simply: Doctors discovered a rare congenital brain malformation they believed to be causing Liza’s seizures, plus a Right Parietal Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM)—a tangle of blood vessels that affects blood flow and can cause hemorrhaging—and a Dural Arteriovenous Fistula (DAVM), which, in her case, caused pressure on the veins in the brain. Because of Liza’s complex, high-risk diagnosis, a search ensued for specialized surgeons who better understood unique malformations such as Liza’s. CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
