In May 2025, fourth-grader Emily Roberts was camping near Cottonwood, California when she awoke one morning completely paralyzed from her left waist down to her left foot. She couldn’t walk.
“I felt very scared,” Emily said. “I had to leave our trip to go to the hospital again.”
Emily’s mother, Cecille Roberts, is haunted by the memory of their drive to the emergency department. “It’s the worst experience, to hear your child screaming in pain, saying she wishes her life would be over, so she won’t hurt anymore,” Cecille said.
A year of frightening symptoms
Emily had already endured a year of worsening, unexplained symptoms. Usually an active kid playing softball, hiking and camping, she began to experience back pain that progressed to leg weakness and incontinence.
“Emily just screamed and cried at home,” Cecille said. “She’d have bathroom accidents at school because she didn’t have the sensations to tell her to go. She was so embarrassed.”
She was repeatedly misdiagnosed and sent home from hospitals and clinics with pain medication that didn’t help.
Paralysis leads to emergency spine surgery and discovery of aggressive bone cyst
Everything changed when UC Davis Children’s Hospital pediatric neurosurgeon Cameron Sadegh received a transfer request. “Based on her symptoms, I knew something was compressing her spinal cord,” he said. “When a person starts losing sensation, doctors have 24-48 hours to intervene before effects may become permanent.”
Sadegh arranged for Emily to take an air ambulance to UC Davis Children’s Hospital, where he met her and her mother on the helipad late one Saturday night. Within 30 minutes of arrival, she was in surgery with Sadegh and UC Davis Spine Center neurosurgeon Rick Price.
The emergency procedure removed enough of the lesion and affected vertebra to restore movement to her leg. It also confirmed the cause of her symptoms: an a rare, aggressive lesion weakening her spine and several ribs. Emily needed more surgery.
Further imaging showed the cyst had grown into her chest cavity. The team brought in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery expert Gary Raff to help protect Emily’s left In addition, vascular neurosurgeon Branden Cord prepared Emily for safer spine reconstruction surgery. To reduce blood loss, he carefully injected material into blood vessels feeding the cyst to block them, a procedure called embolization.