Miracle Moment: 11-year-old returns to school after brain surgery

It’s time for a miracle moment: a young man probably more excited to return to school today than most kids.

Eleven-year-old Bensin Gaff was delivering goodie bags at Golisano Children’s Hospital.

The only sign of what Bensin has been through is a slender surgical scar slightly visible through his jet-black hair.

“After my baseball game, I went home and went to sleep. I was trying to turn my music down, and then I couldn’t talk,” said Bensin.

He was trying to tell Alexa to turn his music down, but he couldn’t get the words out. Bensin told WINK News something similar happened again at school the next day.

“I could move, but my eyes went blurry, and then I couldn’t really talk, and I made noises,” said Bensin.

His parents, Jason and Kristin, brought him to the emergency room. It turned out that Bensin was having seizures.

“I never thought on Thursday night, when Bensin was playing a baseball game with his team standing on second base, he threw somebody out at first. I never thought within a matter of 12 hours, we would be getting, you know, the worst news of our life, that our son had a large brain tumor that didn’t look good,” said Kristin Gaff, Bensin’s mom.

Bensin had what’s called a cavernous malformation or cavernoma. As his neurosurgeon explained, they’re benign but serious.

“It’s a mass that grows by small amounts of bleeding instead of cells reproducing themselves like a tumor,” said Dr. TJ Spinks, a neurosurgeon. “Because his tumor was near the motor strip and right next to the motor strip, it was causing him weakness and causing some seizures as well.”

Dr. Spinks removed it, and Bensin came through surgery like a champ, getting to go home just 72 hours later.

He had to re-learn to walk, but just one month after the operation, he threw out the first pitch at a Mighty Mussels game.

His big sister Gracelin still gets emotional thinking about it.

“Oh, I’m very proud. He got through it easier than I expected him to. I expected it to be a longer journey than it was,” said Gracelin Gaff, Bensin’s sister.

He’s had a lot of support. The whole family has.

“Bensin’s definitely a miracle. Bensin was the strongest through all of it. The support from the community and his school and the prayers got us through this whole process,” said Jason Gaff, Bensin’s dad.

Another blessing for Bensin and the family is having surgery at home in Southwest Florida.

A few years ago, they would have had to travel to Tampa, which is not easy for anyone, especially a couple with 11 kids.

And since they couldn’t all be here, we’ll leave it to Gracelin, Bensin’s miracle and our miracle.

The Pediatric Neurosurgery Program is covered entirely by donations. The surgeon’s salary, all the equipment that made this possible is all paid for by our generous community.

And in case you’re wondering what was in the goodie bags, Bensin said it’s “the good stuff.”  

Good soap and other toiletries, because he remembers how good those felt during the eleven days he spent in the pediatric intensive care unit.