A blind girl born with a usually lifelong brain condition has regained her sight as well as learning to walk and talk - leaving doctors baffled. Evie-Mae Geurts was registered blind at just a few months old, and when her head started to swell a few months later, her mum Amy, 28, wanted answers.
Doctors found she had hydrocephalus - the build up of fluid in the ventricles deep within the brain - at just eight months old. The pressure inside her head was 32 times the normal level, and doctors warned while they could help relieve the pain and build-up, the damage to her brain was done.
The continued pressure meant her sight was gone forever, and she'd likely never learn to walk and talk, her mum says doctors claimed, and she underwent a series of brain operations. Unexpectedly, not only did her sight return when she was a toddler, she also learned to walk and talk.
Furthermore, her hydrocephalus disappeared last year. Usually hydrocephalus can't be cured and constantly requires shunts to drain fluid from the brain.
Evie-Mae, now seven, is doing well at school and doesn't even need to wear glasses. Amy, who lives in Bristol with Evie, her husband quarry operative Martyn Geurts, 49, and her two sons Archie, eight, and George, five, said: "Evie is phenomenal.
"We're so proud of her. The doctors admitted because of a delay in diagnosis, they weren't sure what would happen.
"They didn't know if she'd ever be able to see or walk or talk. Now, she's living shunt free, talking, walking and she's ahead of her age in learning.
"They can't understand - she was globally delayed and now all of a sudden, she's very forward. She's an amazing little girl, and so brave."
Amy first took Evie to Bristol Children's Hospital in 2014. The doctors shone a torch in her eyes and found she had no visual responses, and said she was blind.
With Evie's head continuing to swell, mum Amy repeatedly took her back to the doctors with concerns it could be hydrocephalus. She said: "I knew of hydrocephalus because my brother has it, and I thought that might be why she had no vision.
"But I was told I was wrong because she was a smiley baby. Even though she was pulling her hair out, I was told that if she did have hydrocephalus, because she'd be worse."
Amy turned to her brother's neurosurgeon who diagnosed Evie. Amy returned to Bristol Children's Hospital in April 2015 with the diagnosis, and said she refused to leave until Evie was seen.
Evie had shunts fitted inside her brain to drain the fluid into her bladder. She returned home and over the next year, slowly started to gain vision as the pressure was drained from her brain.
Amy said she was told this is highly unusual for a child who was left untreated for such a long time. Evie began walking at two years old and after learning Makaton, even started to speak.
In April 2019, Evie started started getting headaches again and doctors had to drill through her skull to put in a needle. The pressure was 40 times the expected amount, and it turned out her shunt was blocked, so she was fitted with a new one.
In January 2021 the headaches returned - but medics discovered they had returned because there was no longer any need for the shunts. Doctors made the decision to remove both of the shunts inside Evie's brain - an uncommon procedure due to the risk of causing a stroke or bleeding.
The surgery was a success, but Evie contracted viral meningitis and had to be hospitalised with antibiotics for four more days. She is still undergoing eye tests every six months to monitor her progress.
Amy said: "They can't believe it. Evie is phenomenal."
