Case Study: Terrence Hamilton Jr.

“It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

This quote from film character Rocky Balboa is what Terrence and Latrice Hamilton, parents of Terrence Hamilton, Jr., use when describing their son’s life with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC).

18-year-old Terrence recently embodied this attitude when he underwent laser ablation surgery to remove a tumor in his brain causing severe seizures. Wearing his boxing shorts and boxing gloves, Terrence entered the operating room with “Eye of the Tiger” playing, ready to knock out surgery.

Thanks to the option for laser ablation to remove the tumor, Terrence’s recovery process was much shorter and smoother than an open brain surgery, and he was able to return home the day after surgery.

Born in Louisiana, Terrence was diagnosed with TSC at 3 days old. He had more tumors on his brain than the doctors could count, three inoperable tumors in his heart and polycystic kidney disease causing multiple tumors on both kidneys.

He also had a complex form of epilepsy. Through his first few years of life, his seizures grew worse, to the point where he had 20-30 seizures per day, including tonic-clonic seizures.

Through a fundraiser for TSC, the Hamilton family found Le Bonheur and their Tuberous Sclerosis Center of Excellence. They traveled back and forth from their Louisiana home until Terrence’s seizures worsened. In 2018, the Hamiltons dropped everything and moved their lives to Memphis to be closer to expert care.

Terrence loves all things boxing and reenacts the Rocky movies every day. Recently, pro boxer Mike Cooke held an event to help Terrence raise the money needed for a seizure alert dog.

“I tell anybody, it’s the best decision we ever made. To see him thrive even with all he’s dealing with has been a huge blessing,” said Latrice.

Terrence’s dad even started working at Le Bonheur, specializing in medical imaging. He is greatly involved in assisting Terrence and other children when facing anxiety related to imaging procedures.  

“I got into doing that just so I could kind of stay on top of him and what was going with him while helping other kids just like him,” said Terrence, Sr. 

At Le Bonheur, Terrence has undergone multiple treatments to address his complex and rare epilepsy, including participating in the CBD oil trial at Le Bonheur, a vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) implant and a corpus callosotomy brain surgery.

But recently, Terrence started having violent tonic-clonic seizures in his sleep, which can lead to SUDEP – sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. His neurologist, James Wheless, MD, chief of Pediatric Neurology, wanted to intervene before this progressed further. He introduced the Hamiltons to the idea of minimally invasive, laser ablation surgery to remove a tumor that could be causing some of Terrence’s seizures.

At first Latrice was hesitant, as Terrence’s first brain surgery recovery had been difficult. But after learning more about the minimally invasive nature and the quick recovery, she was ready to move forward with the option of laser ablation.

“I trust our doctors and our team. I know they make the best decisions for us,” said Latrice. “As parents, we want to give Terrence the best options to live his best life.”

Neurosurgeon Nir Shimony, MD, conducted the minimally invasive laser ablation to successfully remove the tumor.  Terrence was able to go home the day after surgery to recover.

The family now waits, filled with hope that the surgery provided Terrence with some relief from seizures. In a few months, if the results are positive, Terrence would return to the OR to have Shimony remove additional tumors, also via laser ablation.

Now, Terrence is getting back in the ring – literally and figuratively. He recently held a boxing event to raise money for a seizure alert dog, of course, named Rocky. The Hamilton family also volunteers their time to help others with TSC, epilepsy and autism.

“This journey has been hard and has hard moments, but we wanted to look at it differently,” said Latrice. “Terrence watches and trains hard to all the Rocky movies every day. He can have a seizure, then bounce back afterwards and starts right back boxing again. Terrence does this with so much stamina, confidence, endurance and perseverance.”