Ayrton Timm de Oliveira and Edwina, both 26 and from Mozambique, were devastated when their infant son and first child, John (name changed), began experiencing major vision loss, delayed growth and feeding difficulties. He is a ten-month-old baby.
After presenting their child’s reports to several Indian hospitals, the parents were informed that their child had a massive brain tumour. Symptoms such as insufficient oral food consumption resulted in the child remaining underweight and constantly crying. The tumour was 7x8x9 cm in size and took up one-third of the brain.
The couple travelled to India in an attempt to save the baby, where Dr Harshil Shah, a well-known neurosurgeon at Ahmedabad’s Shalby Hospitals, performed a five-hour surgery.
Dr Shah said, “They [parents] did a CT scan in Africa and the basic diagnosis revealed it to be a large, initial stage 2 cancerous brain tumour. Every hospital they had gone to told them that the mortality rate was high. Shalby Hospital was able to not just detect but also perform the lengthy and complicated surgery.”
“The male child was suffering from a rare chiasmal tumour. This tumour arises from the optic nerves that were affecting the brain, which I was able to diagnose on time. This is the reason that the child was not able to see even objects that were close to him due to an affected vision,” said Dr Shah.
“Post-surgery, the child’s food intake increased, and he gained three kg. He was nutritionally deficient. However, the patient is now doing well and is completely normal,” said the doctor.
“Surgery and complete tumour removal have a very low success rate, and patients with no deficit are extremely rare. I’ve never seen such a large tumour, let alone in a child,” he added.
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