CBS2 Exclusive: L.I. Surgeons Cure Slovakian Boy Of Laughing Seizure Disorder

MANHASSET, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- The parents of a Slovakian toddler were left helpless and hopeless, after the boy's rare laughing condition made life a living nightmare.

So as CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported exclusively Friday, they turned to renowned surgeons from Long Island.

Dominik Mahalik, 3, could not perform the simplest of tasks, such as singing, without bursting into uncontrollable anxious laughter as the result of seizures. His parents said he could break into laughter six or seven times a day.

"The reason he is having seizures is because of this lesion -- this thing called a hypothalamic hamartoma," said said Dr. Ashesh Mehta of the North Shore-LIJ Medical Group as he showed a diagram. "And this produces a peculiar form of epilepsy -- one that actually causes someone to break into fits of laughter."

Dominik and his parents, Beata and Pavol, live in Slovakia. The outlook for a cure there was grim.

Their only child was laughing, passing out, and getting worse. But the Mahaliks' Internet research led them to America, where they contacted surgeons who recently operated on Dominik.

Dr. Harold Rekate of North Shore-LIJ is a world-renowned expert in treating the rare condition.

"It is a remarkable story – and this not just a problem for the child," Rekate said. "It is a family problem."

"He would actually laugh, but very unnaturally," said Beata Mahalik. "You could see in his eyes a distant look. It wasn't natural. It wasn't a happy laugh at all."

So Dominik underwent groundbreaking surgery using light energy – a laser probe heating and zapping the tiny lesion. The birth defect is located in a hard-to-access part of the brain.

But the surgery did away with it without destroying memory, vision, emotion, hunger or thirst.

"The high-tech nature of this is just extraordinarily exciting," Rekate said. "The laser can be placed within fractions of millimeters of the hamartoma, missing anything important."

Beata Mahalik said the surgery is life-changing.

"It would be for him to have a normal life. We can have a normal life," he said.

Eight days later on Friday, the surgery was deemed a complete success. The Mahaliks were on their way home to Slovakia, where Dominik will begin pre-kindergarten next week.

Dominik will also enjoy his first swimming lesson next week.