It all started when Maegan Johnson was 7 years old and doctors discovered her headache was actually an aneurysm.
No one loves Britney Spears more than this Alabama teen, who said the pop star’s song “Toxic” helped her get through some of her most painful brain surgeries and near-fatal health scares.
Maegan Johnson, 17, of Phenix City, danced to the upbeat song shortly after her most recent surgery.
“When they turned the radio on and I heard ‘Toxic,’ I lit up,” Maegan said in a statement. “I started smiling and shaking my hips and moving my arm in the air.”
In fact, she’s had a long history with the 2004 hit.
It all started when Maegan was 7 years old and suffered from terrible headaches that turned out to be a brain aneurysm. Doctors eventually discovered she was actually suffering from hydrocephalus, and she had to be airlifted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
The brain surgery saved her life, but she suffered a stroke due to complications and lost her ability to speak.
“I couldn’t speak for six weeks,” Maegan said. “I had to communicate on a dry erase board and became very depressed. I didn’t want to smile or communicate.”
Then, she heard the song “Toxic” and everything changed.
“I smiled, tried moving my hips and lifting my arm waving it back and forth in the air trying to dance,” she recalled.
They eventually used that song in all of her future therapy sessions.
Maegan had been living a normal life until recently, when the headache returned. She began suffering vision loss and walking difficulties, and once again turned to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to discover there was a malfunction in the shunt.
She had another round of brain surgery shortly before her graduation from Smiths Station High School at the end of May, and bounced back quickly thanks to the song that got her through 10 years ago.
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