The 12-year-old from Los Angeles once pursued a career in acting and fashion, but is now determined to become a doctor, the aftermath of an unfortunate accident that resulted in several brain surgeries.
“I thought I was going to die,” Susini, who most recently starred on ABC’s “Station 19,” told CNN. “I just don’t know what happened.”
A little over a year ago, a daze holding a swing’s bungee cord bounced off the porch ceiling and shot through Lalia’s skull.
“It started out as a cute, American moment, her grandfather pushing her,” said her mother, Stacey Susini. “Next thing you know there’s blood everywhere and I think I’m going to lose my daughter.”
Los Angeles Fire Department officers found Lalia with a stroke, unconscious, and lost movement on her left side.
Members of Station 97 helped her regain consciousness and took her to Cedars Sinai Hospital.
Stacey Susini said her daughter had to undergo two blood transfusions before doctors could operate because Lalia was bleeding profusely.
“The bullet went through her skull and into an area of the brain responsible for controlling voluntary movement,” said Dr Moise Danielpour, a neurosurgeon at Cedars’ pediatric department.
“She can’t move one side of her body with the wound open. Time is critical.”
Dr Danielpour explained the doctors and nurses fought to save Lalia’s life while preserving as much of her damaged brain as possible.
Danielpour said: “The life of this beautiful child is in our hands and there is no room for error.
Miraculously, Lalia survived the nearly five-hour surgery.
Get inspired to give back
More than a year later, Laila’s left arm is still paralyzed.
But she does have extensive physical therapy, and is back to being active, as well as doing other normal kids things – like riding a bike, playing soccer, going for a run and chasing her three brothers. hers in their Hollywood Hills home.
“I’m working the hardest to get back to all of that,” Lalia said. “Some people will think this (her wound) is so bad that it ruined my life, but you have to be positive.”
Her upbeat attitude has motivated her to help pediatric patients by creating a line of fashionable and comfortable clothing for children living with medical devices.
“We donate clothes to kids who have an arm cast, a PICC wire or an arm feeding tube – anything where the clothes need to be fixed,” says Lalia. The abbreviation PICC line stands for peripherally inserted central catheter and it is used for intravenous infusion of fluids.
The 7th grader said during his recovery he has seen how he and other kids would benefit from wearing any comfortable clothing that has openings for those lines or fabrics.
One of those children was her friend Jack Boulas, who also survived a major brain injury as well as a heart attack.
Six-year-old Jack has a rare catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachyarrhythmia, which causes an irregular heartbeat.
“A lot of families, children, parents live in isolation at a children’s hospital,” said Jack’s father, Matt Boulas.
“I appreciate Lalia for the kindness she showed to Jack. He always talked about her, loved her.
“The first thing he said was ‘hide’ when he saw her, because he loved playing hide and seek with her.”
Lalia’s children’s clothing line is just getting started, with some items being donated.
But clothes are just the beginning, Laila says. She also wants to follow in her doctor’s footsteps into the operating room, and one day become a pediatric neurosurgeon.
She is an A student and is confident that she can do it. But now, Laila is losing day by day.
“It’s amazing how you can have an impact on a young person’s life,” says Danielpour.
.
