Former Braden River High dance coach fights back after brain surgery

Slowly walking toward one of her mother's Imagine School at Lakewood Ranch dancers, Marina Mercier offered some coaching advice, then adjusted her alignment by poking at the child with her foot.

Mercier didn't squat down to the girls' level, obviously cognizant of her own body position, and not wanting to set off a painful series of events by moving too quickly.

She then slowly moved back to her perch in the front of the room, moving around her mom, Michele Mercier, who was prone on the floor, doing dance moves along with the students.

Marina Mercier could only sit and watch. She used to be the coach doing all the moves, but not anymore.

"I can't physically dance," Marina Mercier said sadly. "It's different now."

Only 23 and full of life, Marina Mercier is held prisoner these days by the aftermath of brain surgery. Although she had a golf-ball sized tumor removed at Miami's Jackson Memorial on August 14, 2014, the resulting complications have left her a shell of her former self.

It was only five years ago when Marina Mercier was dancing as fast as she could as an 18-year-old who had graduated from Braden River High School in 2012 and who already had started a boutique business out of her East County home.

A competitive dancer in high school, she had transitioned to coaching three dance teams, following in the footsteps of her mom. Besides everything else, she held down a retail job.

With all the heavy lifting she was doing in terms of her personal responsibilities, she never lost track of life's big picture.

In one particular case, her compassion sidetracked her during a trip to Fort Worth, Texas, for a workshop at Cook Children's Medical Center. She was pursuing a career in early childhood development.

Mercier had read about the case of Lyla Watkins, a 1-year-old who had been born with short bowel syndrome, where she needed to have most of her intestines removed. Since birth, Lyla had been fighting the complications of the disease at Cook Children's Medical Center. After reading about the child, Mercier eventually became Facebook friends with Lyla's mother, Courtney Watkins.

"Marina was still a teenager, but she had been following my daughter, who was in the hospital all the time," Courtney Watkins said. "Marina asked if we could meet up at Chuck E. Cheese's. She owned a boutique herself, and she brought all these personalized outfits, bows and other gifts, and we just hung out.

"She was so nice and you could see how much she loved kids. She didn't even know us, but she was an awesome person with a huge heart. Even after she left, she kept sending presents, like tutus, swimsuits, bows and necklaces. She helped us with items when he had an auction. And I know she was not just helping our family. She was helping other families as well."

Five years later, the young woman with the big heart is now the person who could use a helping hand.

In June of 2014, doctors found a golf-ball sized, benign, brain tumor on her eighth cranial nerve. It almost was found by accident as Marina's younger sister, Megan Mercier, had just had brain surgery due to Chiari malformation, a condition where brain tissue extends into the spinal canal. Since Marina had been having headaches, she was tested.

There was no Chiari malformation. Instead, doctors found an acoustic neuroma tumor, which affects balance, hearing and facial functions. It was so large it was compressing her brain stem, creating a dangerous situation. Doctors used a curved incision behind her right ear and removed 98% of the tumor. Removing any more would have threatened brain function.

While the craniotomy removed most of the tumor, the result was severe nerve damage and loss of hearing in her right ear. In the aftermath, Mercier suffers from such severe pain that it leaves her incapacitated and, at times, hospitalized. She also has to deal with the effects of dysautonomia, which causes a malfunction of the autonomic nervous system.

As Mercier, now 23, and her mother pursue medical procedures to alleviate some of the issues, they are fighting insurance company decisions not to cover many of the procedures that still are considered experimental.

On May 13, "Dance for a Chance" will be held at the Venice Performing Arts Center. The dance competition and showcase will raise money to go toward Mercier's medical bills. They are seeking dance schools, teams and studios, along with soloists, to perform. They also need businesses to sponsor the event and donate auction baskets.

Since her craniotomy, Mercier has had a hearing implant in March of 2015. Doctors drilled into her skull, anchoring a type of permanent screw which protrudes from her head. She now snaps a hearing aide to it. "It's pretty crazy how it works," he said. "I don't hear out of my ear. I hear through my head."

Then in November in Jacksonsville, Mercier underwent a neurectomy decompression. Doctors removed lymph nodes, arteries and scar tissue in the hope of alleviating her constant pain. So fair, it hasn't shown positive results, but Mercier was told it could take up to a year to work. She continues to hope.

"It's been a rough couple of years because I was really active," Mercier said. "I danced on the high school team at Braden River. Then I took over the Braden River junior varsity team in 2013 when I was 19. I also was teaching dance teams and working at Target."

Now she has been forced to watch her mom coach, offering tips when her body allows her to move around the room. If she moves too quickly or tries to do too much, her heart speeds to a pace usually reserved for a track meet, and her brain incapacitates her with pain. She has tried to hold a few jobs since her surgeries, but she always gets "fired."

In looking at Mercier, she appears to be a normal, healthy 20-something. That's part of the problem because people don't understand what is happening within. If she pushes herself to do what most would consider ordinary tasks, she ends up in the emergency room, 

"I'll see her doing something and I know she will be in pain," Michele Mercier said. "When she first started working again, she would try to do too much. She would end up in the bathroom throwing up. A lot of people don't get it. She hasn't been telling stories about the pain. Her heart causes her blood pressure to rise. It's not a headache. It's not a migraine. It's severe. I've begged her not to go back to work."

This is not the person who was full of energy as a high school student.

"She was a straight A student with perfect attendance," Michele Mercier said. "She was an overachiever."

She was an overachiever who put others first.

Kerri Ranck, a 2014 Braden River graduate, was a sophomore on the dance team during Mercier's senior year. "She definitely was very quiet and very flexible," Ranck said of Mercier. "She was very friendly, and she was good with (dance) tricks. Watching her made me want to be on the dance team."

Mercier inspired those around her only through her actions.

"I love the attention," Ranck said. "Marina was the opposite."

After Mercier graduated and had been gone a year, Braden River varsity coach Traci Cristello decided to step down. Braden River asked Mercier if she would take over.

"We were disappointed," said Ranck, who noted that Cristello was a very popular coach and, although a talented dancer, Mercier was an unknown quality as a coach. 

 "We were thinking, 'What if we can run over her?'" Ranck said. "But as soon as she came, we fell in love with her. She took control and she was very organized on top of everything else. I had some personal issues my senior year and she was there for me like a best friend."

Ranck, who is thinking about becoming a dance coach and might start by assisting Michele Mercier, said she was shocked when she found out about Marina Mercier's physical problems. "I've been through some crazy things," Ranck said. "But I couldn't imagine my world just stopping the way hers has."

Mercier doesn't want her life to be on hold, and therefore continues to search for medical solutions.

"I'm struggling right now," she said. "I'm in a lot of pain and I can't feel the back of my head. I had high hopes after this last surgery, but it's too early to tell. It could be November before we know.

"We are trying to figure it out. Should we try something else? Should we wait? I don't want to get too optimistic. I was hoping surgery would get me to a place where I could dance in competition."

Her mother has been her advocate throughout the process.

"We are thinking about other solutions," Michele Mercier said. "The doctors send you to another doctor, and another, and another. It's pretty much up to us now, kind of in our hands. We're constantly trying to figure out what to do and we look at surgeries that are new and experimental. The only way she will ever be able to dance again if we can get her heart in a better place. Her heart just goes crazy."

Mercier is taking six to seven medications a day, two just for the heart and others to manage pain. The goal is to taper off.  For now, that isn't possible. "If I don't take one, I'm in the ER," she said.

If she can't eventually dance herself, she would love to coach, which she loves more than competing. She also would love to be back to a normal life. She can't go to the beach because heat sends her to the hospital. If she goes to an amusement park, she has to be pushed in a wheelchair.

Most of all she just wants to work with children, using dance to help them grow and develop.

She watches as her mom teaches those children ... and she hopes.