Kumar & Rizk Featured in People Magazine Story on Restoring Mobility to Paralyzed Girl

In May of 2025, 2-year-old Milah Faciane suddenly became paralyzed due to a spinal arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a complex and rare condition with an incidence rate of just 0.22 per 100,000 children per year.

Dell Medical School’s Kevin Kumar, MD, PhD, and Elias Rizk, MD, MSc, MBA, of the pediatric neurosciences program identified the cause and led an urgent, eight-hour thoracolumbar laminoplasty to carefully isolate the abnormal vessels and relieve pressure on her spinal cord. “It was a serpentine tangle all around the spinal cord,” Kumar said of the AVM. “Time was of the essence because the longer she had a deficit, the less likely it would be to recover and be permanent. We wanted to move quickly.”

Milah’s incredible progress after surgery and rehabilitation is a reminder of what timely diagnosis, specialized expertise, and coordinated follow-up care can make possible for children and their families across Central Texas.

Read Milah’s full story, featured exclusively on People.com.