One night in mid-May 2025, Raisa Rodsky spotted a rainbow while riding home from dance class in her mother’s car.
“She said, ‘Mommy, look at that big rainbow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rainbow like that in real life,’” says Carole, Raisa’s mom. “And so, I pulled over, and she’s snapping photos. We don’t get so excited as adults seeing rainbows anymore, and she was so excited to see that.”
The next day, Raisa’s life changed drastically. The 9-year-old from Bergholz, Ohio, suffered a life-threatening brain injury that required her to fly to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh for treatment.
Raisa needed emergency brain surgery from UPMC Children’s neurosurgeon, Cody Nesvick, MD, to save her life. She spent the next months recovering while also requiring more brain procedures to treat the complications of her condition.
Six months after her initial emergency, Raisa is back home in Ohio and improving every day. Carole is thankful to the entire care team at UPMC Children’s for their work in saving her daughter.
“I just think my daughter got the best care possible in the world,” she says. “They make miracles happen.”
A Brain Emergency
Raisa is a “sassy, very brilliant” fourth-grader who enjoys dancing, playing the piano, and playing sports, Carole says.
“She’s very funny, she is very well-liked, she’s a great friend, and she’s just a ray of sunshine,” Carole says.
The weekend before her injury, Raisa had “the best dance recital of her life,” her father, Adam, says.
“There was nothing wrong,” he says.
On the morning of May 15, Raisa had a headache as she prepared for school. As Carole drove her to school, Raisa became sick and vomited in the car — prompting Carole to bring her back home.
Carole, a nurse with a background in neurology, suspected Raisa had hit her head and suffered a concussion. However, Raisa told Carole that she hadn’t hit her head.
After returning home, Raisa vomited again. Still thinking it was a concussion, Carole prepared to call Raisa’s doctor when a different emergency occurred.
“I tried to get her off the ground by the toilet she was throwing up in, and I heard her grind her teeth, and she went limp on the right side,” Carole says. “I knew immediately she’d had a stroke.”
Carole told Adam to call 911. The emergency medical technicians arrived within minutes. Upon evaluating Raisa, the EMTs said they would have to transport her to UPMC Children’s by helicopter.
In less than an hour, she was in Pittsburgh.
“I thank my local EMS every day because they didn’t mess around,” Adam says. “Time was such a factor with everything here.”
Lifesaving Brain Surgery
After arriving at UPMC Children’s, Raisa went to the emergency department. The ED team, led by Maria Antonucci, MD, rushed to help.
Computed tomography (CT) imaging showed a hemorrhage in Raisa’s brain. The bleeding was in the area that controls movement and speech on the right side of the body. She also had a “blown pupil’ — a rapidly dilating pupil, which is a sign of life-threatening pressure in the brain. Raisa would need emergency brain surgery to save her life.
When Raisa’s family talked to Dr. Nesvick before the surgery, he told them he suspected Raisa had a lesion or an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in her brain. An AVM is an abnormal connection between arteries and veins in the brain.
“Dr. Nesvick was honest. He said, ‘This is a lifesaving procedure,’” Carole adds. “It really was frightening, and that’s when I lost it. I kept it together until that moment. It was intense.”
Despite their fear, Carole and Adam say they trusted Dr. Nesvick and the UPMC Children’s team.
“I looked at it like this: ‘She’s at Children’s Hospital. That’s the best care you’re going to get in this world,’” Adam says. “Whatever they’re going to do, I’m not going to question it because we’re in the right place.”
Dr. Nesvick and his team decompressed Raisa’s brain and removed the AVM in a procedure that lasted several hours. Afterward, she was moved to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).
“When Dr. Nesvick came and talked to us after the surgery, I said, ‘Well, if anybody’s going to fight and win, it’s going to be her,’” Carole says. “I’m not sure I believed it at the time I said it, but I did want him to know.”
The Turning Point
Even after the surgery, Raisa wasn’t out of the woods. She had a tube put in to help her breathe. While in the PICU, she had numerous seizures and concerning fevers. She also developed pneumonia because of the amount of time she spent with the breathing tube.
“The nurses in the PICU — most days, they just ran,” Carole says. “They literally only had Raisa as a patient, and they were on their feet and moving the entire 12 hours with the care she needed. It was really amazing to see.”
Raisa had hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is too much cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain.
Dr. Nesvick also performed surgery to place a shunt to divert the excess fluid from the ventricles in Raisa’s brain to her abdomen, where her body could absorb it.
“And that was really the turning point,” Carole says. “Honestly, I lived in fear for the first three weeks — just a constant state of unknown and fear. But also, I really believed in the care she was getting.”
Shortly thereafter, Raisa underwent a cranioplasty to replace her skull bone from her previous surgery.
Turning the Corner
Three days after her cranioplasty, Raisa transferred to the inpatient rehabilitation unit at UPMC Children’s. She worked with occupational, physical, and speech therapists to relearn how to walk, talk, and perform everyday activities.
“When they took her to medical rehab, I thought, ‘We’re going to turn the corner right now,’” Adam says.
At first, Raisa was on medication to lower her seizure risk. She couldn’t walk or talk at first, and Carole says Raisa was experiencing confusion.
The first major sign of Raisa turning the corner came at the end of June.
“They weren’t really expecting her to be able to talk,” Carole says. “At the end of June, I came home for a day to work on the house to get things arranged for her. My mom sent me a video — she said, ‘Mommy, I love you.’
“That’s the first time she spoke in over six weeks. That was amazing.”
Over the next several weeks, Raisa continued to improve. She began walking with the help of a cane and an ankle and foot orthotic.
“With the therapy regimen, they were doing two-a-days and then one-a-days on Saturday,” Adam says. “They weren’t stopping. And Raisa was ready to go. She handled everything like a champ.”
Raisa spent 10 weeks in inpatient rehabilitation. Carole and Adam noticed a major difference from her first day to her last day in the unit.
“When she woke up, she couldn’t tell you colors. She couldn’t tell you numbers. She just struggled with everything,” Carole says. “By the time we left there, she was the Uno champion of the rehab unit. They made her a little trophy. What an impact they made.”
Improving Every Day
On Aug. 27, after 105 days in the hospital, Raisa returned home.
“It was scary because this is a different world for us,” Carole says. “This is a completely different life we’re living. And it took us a couple of days, but we did get adjusted. We got a routine down.”
Raisa returned to UPMC Children’s in September for an endoscopic septostomy, an additional surgery to treat her hydrocephalus. An angiogram taken after the procedure showed no evidence of a residual AVM, a sign she’s unlikely to have one again.
Meanwhile, Raisa is showing improvement every day while continuing with outpatient therapy.
“We still have a long way to go, but every day, I see more and more of her personality. I see more and more of her intellect coming back,” Carole says. “I know everyone thinks their kid is very, very smart, but she was absolutely brilliant, and I really do see the light coming back. She’s doing great.”
Adam and Carole hope Raisa can return to many of the hobbies she loved, such as dancing, playing the piano, and sports.
“It’s a slow process, but we knew it was going to be,” Adam says. “I’d like her to get back to walking on her own and doing everyday tasks, things that she loves — dancing, piano, basketball. I want her to get back to doing the things she loved to do. Going to school and being with all of her friends. That’s what every kid wants to do.”
During Raisa’s stay in the hospital, she interacted with many different UPMC Children’s employees. Carole says she’s grateful to everyone for the care and compassion they provided.
“I never thought Raisa would have to deal with this and have to get care at a hospital in Pittsburgh, but I have to say we experienced just the same level of expertise as what we’ve experienced in the past at (UPMC Presbyterian),” Carole says. “Everyone at Children’s was kind and compassionate.
“Dr. Nesvick, the way I see him care for my daughter is just amazing. You have someone really special there. I just think it’s unbeatable care at all levels.”