Sisters with mysterious symptoms diagnosed with same rare brain condition: "You've got to be kidding"

Paul and Ashlee Higginbotham knew what was and wasn't normal for their kids. As the parents of six, they had seen a lot of illnesses and tantrums. But they were baffled by the behavior of their youngest daughter, Austyn.

Austyn was "just not happy" and "never content," Ashlee said. As an infant, she never slept and cried constantly. She was "never smiling, never laughing," the toddler's mother said. She had mild developmental delays and a tremor. At 18 months old, genetic testing found she had a genetic condition called Chiari malformation.

The condition occurs when the lower part of the brain does not fit inside the skull and bulges out of the opening where the skull joins the spinal cord, said Dr. David Harter, director of pediatric neurosurgery at NYU Langone. It puts pressure on both