Meet Kira

May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month. At Seattle Children’s Hospital, we’re committed to unlocking the mysteries of the developing brain. This is one of the core pillars of It Starts With Yes: The Campaign for Seattle Children’s. We want to understand how brain disorders are connected to each other and to brain development.

We want to better serve kids like Kira.

About four and a half years ago, Kira Iaconetti, 19, began noticing something weird that would happen when she was singing or listening to music.

“It was like a light switch turned off in my brain,” said Kira, a talented self-taught musician who has been performing in musicals since she was 6 years old. “Suddenly, I was tone deaf, I couldn’t process the words in time with the music and I couldn’t sing.”

The neurologist determined Iaconetti’s episodes were actually seizures that were particularly difficult to pinpoint because they were often only triggered by music. The cause of her seizures remained unknown until a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan at Seattle Children’s revealed a marble-sized mass in the right temporal lobe of her brain.

Kira would need brain surgery to remove the tumor. Because of the tumor’s location, the Seattle Children’s epilepsy surgery team took an innovative, personalized approach to planning her surgery.

For kids with complex neurological disorders who have few or no other treatment options, neurosurgical innovations can offer new hope, and even a cure, which is one of the reasons we launched It Starts With Yes: The Campaign for Seattle Children’s. It Starts With Yes is a $1 billion initiative with a bold vision to transform children’s health. With your help, we will continue to provide financial assistance for families in need; expand necessary healthcare and research facilities; and invest in clinical and research programs to advance pediatric medicine. 

Give today to help support kids like Kira and transform childhood health for generations to come.