nary headache. She and her parents were returning from a visit to Long Island in July 2014 when the pain struck. Was it a bout of carsickness? Too much screen time on her iPad? screaming that somebody was stabbing her in the head with a knife." Soon afterward, Christina was comatose and in an ambulance--and her life was in grave danger. mal blood vessels in her brain called an arterio- venous malformation, or AVM--which occurs in just 18 people per 100,000 according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Most AVMs cause no harm, but a few--like Christina's--rupture and cause bleeding inside the brain. Christina had suffered a stroke. |