Doctors tout Hailee Guzman's miraculous recovery from brain tumor
VALHALLA, N.Y. -- Here's a story that will bring a smile to your face.
A 6-year-old girl that was facing a horrible diagnosis is now thriving less than a year later.
Doctors are calling the girl's story a miracle.
Hailee Guzman showed off her "I did it" dance, and, yes, she has done it.
She has been rolling with the punches for a while now. Last year, she was a cheerful kindergartener from Yonkers with an infectious smile. But in June, doctors discovered a large tumor in her brain.
"Her mom and I were both devastated, angry," father Willy Guzman-Ayala said.
Hailee's parents took her to the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, where she underwent two surgeries to remove the tumor. She was then taken to Blythedale Children's Hospital in Valhalla for rehabilitation.
"So Hailee is a little miracle," Dr. William Watson said.
Watson, a neuropsychologist at Blythedale, said Hailee's recovery has not been easy.
"Her tumor was in a location in the middle of her brain that's responsible for a lot of different sensory, motor and cognitive abilities, and so as she was recovering we saw a lot of issues in all of those different areas, and then she slowly started to show us that she was in there," Watson said.
Hailee didn't speak a word for four months.
"And then all of a sudden she just started talking. It just came out of nowhere," Guzman-Ayala said.
Hailee has been beating the odds every day since. Her recovery is going so well, she was able to go home in December to spend more time with her family.
Her journey is not over. She comes back for daily therapy. But she faced the unthinkable and emerged on the other side, stronger than ever and still smiling.
Hailee is now in the first grade and goes to class at the hospital's on-site school.
