Grace sleeps after surgery
Carterton schoolgirl Grace Yeats successfully underwent brain surgery on Wednesday aiming to calm powerful spasms.
Yeats family friend and neighbour Jonathan Tanner, who is spokesman for the Grace Yeats Trust, said the surgical team at Starship hospital had completed two procedures - to implant electrodes in Grace's brain and a pacemaker in her chest - after which the 10-year-old St Mary's School pupil had slept soundly.
It is the first time in New Zealand a child has undergone the surgery, which is part of a treatment called deep brain stimulation.
"Grace seems to be getting through it pretty well and the family are happy they managed to complete both procedures, which is a good thing."
Mr Tanner said the implants would now be calibrated in a procedure that could take some time.
Grace was struck down in May with a brain disease after coming home from her St Mary's School classroom with a sore throat. She has since been in Auckland's Starship hospital.
