Brain Surgery, Big Comeback
How expert care helped a teen beat the odds.
Kian Ruid was bent double, seeking escape from a searing migraine. Then 14, the 6-foot-3 student athlete at Champlain Valley Union High School didn’t know what was causing his debilitating headaches. He only knew that standing upright was unbearable.
“It wasn’t great,” says Ruid. “In a short period of time, life went from pretty normal to pretty crappy."
An MRI revealed the reason: a rare abnormality in Kian’s brain: an arteriovenous malformation, or AVM — a dangerous tangle of blood vessels that can hemorrhage, causing seizures or stroke-like symptoms.
“You’re never prepared to hear something so life changing, especially when it comes to your kids,” says Rebecca Ruid, Kian’s mother. “It wasn’t until I spoke with Katrina that I started to think, ‘We’re going to get through this.’”
A Life Changing Decision
Katrina Ducis, MD, a neurosurgeon at University of Vermont Health – UVM Medical Center and the only pediatric neurosurgeon in Vermont, learned of Kian’s case while traveling home from a Chicago conference. As she waited to board her flight, she called Rebecca to discuss options.
“AVMs in the brain are urgent because rupture risk rises substantially each year they’re left untreated — for Kian, he was facing a 90% chance that the AVM would rupture during his lifetime,” says Dr. Ducis. “But removing one that is entangled with the brain’s motor center, like in Kian’s case, can be particularly risky.”
The motor cortex controls body movement. Removing even a tiny section can cause permanent loss of function. Kian’s AVM was large and deeply embedded.
“Kian was strong and young – qualities that make you more resilient to neurological changes,” says Dr. Ducis, who previously led AVM surgeries at IU Health University Hospital in Indiana before joining UVM Medical Center.
After scans, Dr. Ducis laid out all the options and risks. Rebecca also consulted neurosurgeons in Boston and New York but chose UVM Medical Center.
“The AVM needed to come out,” says Rebecca, "Dr. Ducis’s honest and attentive communication made us feel we were in the right hands, right here in Vermont.”
Kian agreed. They would move ahead with surgery.
Precision and Partnership
Dr. Ducis and her team spent nearly eight hours removing the grape-sized AVM. An earlier procedure by David Johnson, MD, an interventional neuroradiologist at UVM Medical Center, reduced the risk of bleeding by blocking blood flow to the AVM.
One piece remained, too deep to remove safely. Kian would need a short course in targeted radiation therapy, a choice informed by his keen desire to play sports again.
Recovery was tough: Much of the right side of his body was numb, and he couldn’t walk. After hospital care, he began rehab at Fanny Allen.
“I underestimated how difficult it would be,” Kian says. “Relearning to walk is a whole different thing. But I was determined to play hockey again.”
Back on the Ice
After a week in rehab, Kian was walking. Nine months later, he made the varsity hockey team at his high school, got his driver’s license and played JV lacrosse.
The numbness faded, now limited to his right hand and lower right leg. He continues therapy with Allie Triola, a neurologic specialist in South Burlington who trained at the Mayo Clinic.
“He’s an incredibly hard worker,” says Triola. “His recovery has been absolutely amazing,”
On a recent afternoon, Kian chatted with his mom about taking calculus. Once enthusiastic about math, his interests have shifted.
“Now he wants to be in medicine – probably neuroscience,” Rebecca says with a laugh.
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