Singer set to sing to her good health
Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
Published February 13, 2006 at midnight
Victory is in sight for a 14-year-old professional singer whose unusual brain injury threatened her life and her family's finances.
"I'm having a craniotomy for my birthday!" said Erienne Romaine of Denver, who turns 15 on March 1 and expects to have her final procedure on March 7.
Erienne, a sophomore at the Denver School of the Arts, has a spaghetti-like bundle of malformed veins in her brain that make her dizzy and could be fatal.
Her parents, Chris and Paul, don't have health insurance and faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills for several procedures that step by step aim to starve the bundles of veins, alleviating the pressure that causes her to scream out in pain.
Swedish Medical Center in Englewood and Dr. Donald Frei, interventional neuroradiologist with Radiology Imaging Associates, discounted their prices to make the procedures as affordable as possible.
The Romaines, for their part, marketed Erienne's CD, The Scenic Route.
It sold out its original 2,000 copies, so they made 5,000 more.
Meantime, Frei went into Erienne's brain three times to starve different parts of the bundle of veins.
It looks like he'll only have to do that one more time, on March 6. One day later, there will be an even more delicate procedure as the starved veins are snipped off, relieving the pressure for good.
"It's a great feeling that the end is in sight," Erienne said. "I have to get back to life. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I know it means getting back into school.
How to help
• Buy the CD: Scenic Route is available at www.erienneromaine.com, by mail or at Twist and Shout.
• Donate: Musicians Relief Fund, 4505 W. 36th Ave., Denver, CO 80212.
scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2897
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