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A little girl with a brain tumor |
It all started when she was little. About 6 years old, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was a happy and smart little girl who lived in Cuba. Her name is Karen. At 6 years old, she started gaining weight at a rapid pace and doctors just thought it was puberty. The bad part is that the weight wasn't due to puberty, so her dad's friend recommended another doctor. Her dad didn't believe him and said that it was due to something else, but she soon was not able to hold her weight. She couldn't go down or up the stairs. So her parents finally took her and after running some test the doctor finally came back with an answer. She had a tumor in the pituitary and she had what was called Cushings Disease. Rare condition in kids. Sooo what now? After reading books, doing santeria, going to church the little girl didn't get better. She barely finished 2nd grade in the hospital. Her parents were desperate besides that the doctors wouldn't let her out of the hospital due to very high blood pressure. After a few months, a surgery was planned to remove the tumor. Karen needed to be transferred to another hospital which was a government hospital. Basically rich people and the president only went there. On the day of the surgery, the doctor left the country but everything went as planned. After the surgery, the doctor never came out to say anything only a resident and said everything was fine. Karen returned to the original hospital she was in, and put in intensive care. After a couple of days, she wouldn't get better. She actually got worse, and her mom desperate started making calls. The doctor was no where to be found. Finally, the resident student doctor came out and told the truth. He said the doctor had left the country, but not to lift any suspicion he went on with the surgery. He only opened and closed because he was scared of not being able to remove the tumor. Karen's mom went nuts. She started crying thinking Karen was going to die. She called the husband and told him what they told her. He got even more furious. After some time with antibiotics, the scar started looking better. Karen was still in intensive care after 8 months. She was always sad and didn't want to talk to anyone. No visitors, and only her mom by her side. They came to see her from different religions, but a few were to pass Karen's sickness to another child and her mom couldn't do that. After a year, Karen was put in a regular room. The thing is that in Cuba, rooms are shared always. There are about 7 people to a room, and about 2 rooms per doctor. Meaning, endocrinology had 2 rooms with 14 kids because it was the pediatric side of endocrinology. Everyday the doctor would come and run checkup, weather it was morning or afternoon. The food was horrible, besides that Karen was not allowed to eat salt. So, the food tasted even worse. Her grandma made her some foods with lots of lemon so it tasted a little better. After seeing his daughter suffer, her dad started writing letters to the USA. A hospital in Baltimore, MD said we can't help but maybe there is another hospital that could. That hospital said yes, we will help but your country has to let you out. The good and the bad all mixed at once was that Cuba let her out but they didn't want to give her the papers ASAP. The hospital didn't want to let her out and if she steeped out, it was her parents responsibility. So what then? Her dad got her out of the hospital and they flew to a new country with a new language, doctor, hospital and everything else. The first thing doctors did in this country was to let Karen know what she had and what was going to happen. Her parents were against that because they thought letting the child know could maybe do something worse. Karen was smart, she knew already but this american doctor reconfirmed what she had. They also told her that they would take her off any medication she was on, and grant her a wish from Make A Wish Foundation. Karen wished to go to Disney and so her wish was granted. After she returned from her mini vacation, the surgery was performed. The doctors and Karen started to see results within a few months. Karen got skinny and after such her parents decided to stay in the USA. She started to go to school and learn the new language. She made friends, did very well in school. Until...The tumor came back. |