Editor’s note: This updated story now includes an interview with Anwyn Watts principal, Dr. Susan Jordan.
What started out as a little girl’s cry turned into every parent’s worst nightmare and rallied a community behind one of North Collier’s youngest ambassadors.
Doctors thought that Anwyn Watts, 7, of Naples would lose her sight, hearing, her ability to speak and walk if she even survived after her headache turned out to have an unexpected cause.
The North Collier Fire Rescue was heartbroken to hear that their honorary “unofficial assistant” might never be the same little girl who helped a child in distress – rushing to get help after a child’s hair got tangled in a fan at a face-painting booth.
“Anwyn is seriously just one of those special kids that left an impression on our hearts when we met her when she was 4 years old,” said Heather Mazurkiewicz, the fire department’s public information officer..
Now the fire department and the rest of the Southwest Florida community supported the “brave, compassionate” 7-year-old girl who is now recovering, singing, laughing and begging to run a marathon.
Two months ago, 7-year-old Anwyn Watts of Naples suffered from a sudden medical episode that ended with paramedics rushing the young girl to the hospital for emergency brain surgery.
It happened in the early Dec. 17, just after the clock struck midnight.
Anwyn woke up crying with complaints of a headache.
Headache reveals a much worse medical diagnosis
Migraines run in her family, Anwyn’s mother Stephanie Watts, said. Watts assumed that perhaps Anwyn had eaten too much sodium-ridden food at a school event the day before — pizza, chips, soda, the works.
But Watts quickly realized it was more serious than that when Anwyn’s demeanor changed.
Her sweet little girl suddenly became angry and agitated, responding to her mother’s questions with aggression.
“It was not her personality at all,” Watts said.
Minutes later, Anwyn began vomiting and telling her parents that she felt confused. Then, she began to lose consciousness.
“She was going completely ragdoll.”
Watts thought perhaps Anwyn had taken a fall and suffered from a concussion, but she could not find any injuries.
“She loves to play hard and when she falls down, she kind of just brushes herself off, never cries about a booboo and keeps on going. She’s a tough kid,” Watts said.
But this was no concussion.
Emergency room trip reveals large mass in Anwyn’s brain
After calling 911 and rushing Anwyn to the hospital, doctors scanned her brain and found a “concerningly large” mass in her brain.
“I think at that point, I lost consciousness. I’m sure every mom would have done the same thing. Everything just went black to me,” Watts said.
Anwyn was admitted within hours for emergency brain surgery, a craniotomy that relieved the “tremendous” pressure in her brain by removing a hematoma.
A hematoma is typically caused by traumatic injuries, resulting in internal bleeding that can press on surrounding tissue. Hematomas in the head are particularly dangerous because there is limited space for the blood. This pressure against the brain can lead to extensive brain damage.
Anwyn Watts receives a devastating, possibly fatal diagnosis
However, Anwyn’s condition was not the result of an injury.
Neurosurgeons accredited Anwyn’s episode to an arteriovenous malformation (AVM).
An AVM is a tangled nest of malformed veins. AVMs can happen anywhere. Brain AVMs are considered rare.
Anwyn’s symptoms began when the veins ruptured, resulting in multiple strokes.
After the initial surgery at Golisano Children’s Hospital in Fort Myers, Anwyn was sent to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, where she remains a patient.
There, doctors initially gave Anwyn a “really terrible” prognosis.
Doctors told Watts that Anwyn may lose her sight, hearing, her ability to speak, walk or even breathe on her own ever again.
‘Miracle’ girl begins her recovery, gives hope
However, when they extubated Anwyn, she started to breathe on her own without the support of a machine.
“It was absolutely a miracle. We thought ‘great, this is amazing, there’s hope’,” Watts said.
Anwyn and her family continued to face many hurdles over the next two months.
She experienced something called neurostorming, which meant that Anwyn’s brain was misfiring and alerting her to danger that did not exist.
Anwyn’s blood pressure would skyrocket, she would begin hyperventilating and spasming.
A mixture of various drugs helped Anwyn come out of these repeated neurostorms, and miraculously, Anwyn opened her eyes and began to nod her head in response to questions.
“I thought ‘this is unreal, she’s not supposed to be doing any of this.’ At this point, we were just amazed,” Watts said.
Everyone continued to speak with Anwyn as much as possible, and Watts believes that music therapy played the biggest role in Anwyn’s recovery.
“One day, she just decided to speak. She was making full sentences and everything was making sense. We thought this was truly a miracle. We weren’t expecting any of this,” Watts said.
From silence to singing, Bob Marley tune re-awakens talent
Anwyn is even singing constantly now. One of her favorite songs to sing is “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley.
“She has a stage presence. She loves being front and center. She has never met a stranger. She’s never met an enemy. She loves everyone and everyone loves her,” Watts said.
“She’s a spunky, spicy, feisty little girl.”
Naples community blankets Anwyn in love
The Naples/Collier County community has supported Anwyn during her recovery from her medical battle.
When Anwyn was 4, she saw another child get hurt after their hair became tangled in a fan during face-painting at a community event in Naples.
Anwyn remembered where the firefighters from North Collier Fire Rescue District had set up at the event and ran for help. Since then, the fire department has considered Anwyn their “unofficial assistant,” the department wrote in a Facebook post.
The fire department made her a blanket and sent her a message “from all of us at North Collier Fire, letting her know how proud we are of her, how much we miss her and how deeply she is loved,” the post says.
Anwyn’s school, Lavern Gaynor Elementary in Golden Gate, has supported Anwyn throughout her recovery.
Principal Susan Jordan said her classmates have dealt with her absence by writing her letters about their thoughts and feelings to place on her desk, and the school created a large mural of paper hearts in her honor, before sending them to the Miami hospital.
As for that goal of running a marathon, her school running club inspires her.
She had run 24 miles, one mile at a time, before getting sick. A teacher carried a banner the remaining distance for her, with Anwyn wanting to finish it when she gets well.
“She wants to be the one to do it next time,” Jordan said.
A week-long fundraiser had students creating bracelets for sale and parents, teachers, students and friends donating cash that raised more than $3,029, with an anonymous donor adding $10,000.
The parent-teacher organization also had a fundraiser at Il Primo Pizza and Wings in Golden Gate on Feb. 18, with the tally continuing to be counted.
Mazurkiewicz mentioned on the fire department’s social media that friends, family and fire fighters and Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the pizza fundraiser.
“The line was out the door,” she said. “… Anwyn, your North Collier Fire family and this community are with you every step of the way.”
In addition, the family continues to raise other funds. A GoFundMe started by Anwyn’s mother has reached $13,600 of its $16,000 goal.
“Everybody in the community has been behind this little girl and she’s going to do great things because of it. I thank everyone so much,” Watts said.
Tayeba Hussein is a breaking news reporter for The News-Press & Naples Daily News. Reach her at thussein@usatodayco.com.
Please support Southwest Florida community journalism and stay informed about Southwest Florida news by subscribing to The News-Press and Naples Daily News; download the free News-Press or Naples Daily News app, and sign up for daily briefing email newsletter, food & dining and growth & development newsletters here and here.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: From brain surgery to wanting to run marathon, Naples 2nd-grader on mend
Reporting by Tayeba Hussein, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
