A five-year-old girl from Kent underwent major brain surgery to save her life after suffering up to 50 epileptic seizures every day, transforming the daily realities for herself and her family. The ordeal began just ahead of Indy Glover’s fifth birthday in 2023, when a severe seizure stopped her breathing. Her terrified parents, Hayley Davies and Paul Stannard, administered CPR for ten minutes as paramedics rushed to their Whitstable home. The trauma marked the start of a harrowing journey that would culminate in a drastic seven-hour operation to remove a quarter of her brain.
Prior to her illness, Indy had been healthy, active, and happy. However, on a summer day in 2023, her mother noticed something unusual as Indy was picked up from school, just before that first dramatic seizure. “It flipped our whole world upside down,” Hayley recounted, highlighting the shocking speed with which their lives changed.
In the months following that first episode, seizures became an all-consuming and terrifying part of daily life for the family. The frequency increased rapidly – progressing from a few each day to over 50. Remarkably self-aware for her age, Indy would alert her parents before each seizure began, reportedly saying, “Mum, one is coming.” The episodes struck both during the day and throughout the night, leaving little respite or rest for family members.
Doctors at the local QEQM Hospital in Margate initially attributed the seizures to epilepsy and prescribed various medications. However, Hayley suspected a deeper cause, especially as Indy’s seizures grew more persistent and powerful. Despite trialling multiple anti-epileptic drugs, nothing could halt the relentless tide of convulsions. “She was almost comatose on the sofa every day,” Hayley observed, recalling the heartbreaking transformation from lively child to a girl dulled by medication and exhaustion.
For Indy’s parents, the pressures were relentless, both physically and emotionally. With a young son also at home and constant ambulance calls, Hayley made the difficult decision to pause her jewellery business to care for Indy full time. Persistently advocating for her daughter, Hayley eventually succeeded in referring Indy to a specialist team at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, who in turn collaborated with experts from Great Ormond Street and King’s College hospitals. Intensive monitoring and a series of tests were carried out, but answers remained elusive.
A breakthrough finally arrived when a scan detected a slight enlargement on one side of Indy’s brain. It became clear that medication alone could not halt her seizures; only brain surgery offered a chance at recovery. The recommended procedure involved removing the left temporal lobe – an area crucial for memory and learning – as well as the hippocampus. The family faced agonising uncertainty as medical experts weighed up the risks: the possibility of life-altering impacts on sight, movement, and cognition.
The months before surgery were fraught with anxiety as Indy’s seizures worsened and hospital admissions became almost weekly occurrences. Ultimately, when her condition deteriorated rapidly in February, she was transferred as an emergency to Great Ormond Street Hospital. Surgeons operated for seven hours, removing not just the targeted area but also neighbouring brain tissue scarred by the relentless seizures. Pathology later confirmed temporal lobe cirrhosis as the underlying cause.
Immediately after the operation, Indy suffered two further seizures – which doctors had expected as a post-operative response. Astonishingly, they proved to be her last. Over the next year, she embarked on a slow and arduous recovery. There were setbacks, including issues with balance and memory, not to mention the struggle of withdrawing from powerful medications. The consequences for her schooling and social life were significant, with Indy missing an entire academic year.
Against the odds, Indy gradually reclaimed her health and personality. Today, at seven years old, she is thriving and seizure-free, stunning her family and medical team with her resilience. According to Hayley, the surgery “completely worked; it healed her,” and Indy bears no lasting changes to her personality or abilities beyond occasional check-ups with her consultants.
Indy’s story has inspired her mother Hayley to create MyRealFairies, a business selling creative fairy kits for children. For each kit sold, a care package is donated to a child in hospital, drawing on the same magic and comfort that Hayley used to buoy her daughter through weeks of treatment. With every fairy kit, she hopes to support other children and families facing similar health crises – and to spread a bit of hope born from her own family’s extraordinary journey.