Russell P. Saneto, DO, PhD

Dr. Saneto was our neurologist for our son's brain surgery, and we are ever so grateful to him for his part in a surgery which forever changed our son's life. We had no guarantees that our baby's functioning would improve from the surgery, but 2 days after surgery, he was looking around, smiling, and sitting up with support. Soon after that, our child who had been profoundly delayed, began to achieve developmental milestone after milestone, and now, at age 2 1/2 (just 18 months after surgery) is within normal limits in his language skills and close to normal in his gross motor skills. He still has some difficulties w/ some fine motor tasks, but has made amazing gains in every single area of development. Our son had Infantile Spasms, and his surgery was for focal cortical dysplasia, and the surgery was termed a focal cortical resection of the occipital lobe. When people look at our son today, they assume that he is a normal 2 year old, and they are completely amazed at how delayed he was, even at almost a year old. Our son can speak in 4 word utterances, saying things like, "Shut the door, Mommy", and can walk up and down stairs, go down the slide, open doors, eat with a fork and spoon, and drink from an open cup without spilling. He can also climb a ladder and go down the slide, and can put large knob puzzle pieces in a puzzle and stack 2 blocks. This is a child who could not sit up with support at 11 months, was floppy, and had poor head/neck control, and was hypotonic (low muscle tone). We praise God for doctors Saneto, Ojemann (neurosurgeon) and Novotny, and we thank God for the miracle of our baby's healing. These doctors were a complete answer to our prayer, and they were a wonderful, caring team with whom to work. They took on our son's case even though they said it might be too late (to effect a change), and that the area of seizure activity had beyond its original site. When you are facing brain surgery for your child, you feel very scared and desperate, but rest assured that Dr. Saneto and his excellent team will provide the very best outcome for your child, and will take good care of your child during surgery.

Dr. Saneto was an answer to our prayers in 2008, after searching over a year for a doctor to listen to us and to help us diagnose our daughter. She has been Dr. Saneto's patient since April 2008 and was diagnosed in October 2008 with a mitochondrial disease at the age of 22 month old. We have been very thankful for him every since! He listens and cares about what you have to say, explains things wonderfully, and really gets that we as parents should play a leading role in our child's health care.

I truly believe the Dr. Saneto was a God Send!!! We are dealing with Dravet Syndrome in our family, and Dr. Saneto and Seattle Children's have been wonderful every step of the way since we found them. Dr. Saneto is rare among his peers. You get the sense when you are with him that he is truly interested in what you have to say, and that he truly cares. His ability to impart information so we can truly understand is amazing... I really can not put completely into words how he has made our lives with this truly devastating disorder so much easier... Brandi