A 14-year-old had been complaining about some symptoms, which doctors initially dismissed. Now his diagnosis serves as a warning not to ignore such things.
Keep reading to know more.
Max Hall, a young schoolboy from the United Kingdom, had been suffering from headaches persistently for about a year. Healthcare professionals, however, dismissed them, saying they might be ‘teenage migraines’. After a visit to the doctor, he was given painkillers and sent on his way home.
However, just days after he turned 14 years old, he suffered from a severe seizure and was rushed to the hospital. He was then placed on life support and diagnosed with a Stage 4 brain tumor, which has been pronounced as untreatable.
Jackie, Max’s mother, explained that her son was on life support for two nights and then taken for an MRI scan, which revealed the extent of his condition.
“We know that it’s terminal because of the size of the mass on the brain,” the 44-year-old mother said, adding, “It’s Stage 4 terminal, they say they can’t remove or shrink the growth.”
She said her son was completely healthy before this and was a ‘sporty’ kid.
“The only thing he had leading up to this was frequent headaches that turned into migraines,” she recalled, adding, “They were there for over a year and we were just fobbed off with ibuprofen.”
After the mother’s statements, in a statement, Hemant Nemade, University Hospitals of Northamptonshire Group Medical Director, shared that, “Our thoughts are with Max and his family at this unimaginably difficult time.
“We are looking into the circumstances of his care with us to establish what happened in order to learn from this.”
Due to the location of the tumor in his brain, he was given the option of chemotherapy by the NHS, but his family is now trying to crowd fund for a treatment in Germany.
“It can’t get any worse. There’s literally nothing that they can do for him in the UK. This is Max’s life,” Jackie said.
In Germany, Max would be able to get vaccines that would attempt to kill the cells of the tumor and slow down their growth.
“It’s almost a personalized vaccine. They take blood from Max, look at the cells, and create a vaccine personalised to Max’s tumor,” Jackie explained. This treatment would involve Max flying out to Germany every couple of weeks to recieve a dose.
The family is hoping to raise £250,000 (approximately $335,000). This would help them cover the cost of treatment for a year. The German treatment is not a sure shot cure but it will help Max live a longer life than the treatment offered by the NHS would.
“We just need him around with us,” Jackie said. She shared that while the diagnosis isn’t positive, Max is. “Max is taking it so well, it’s so great. He’s tired all the time and he’s losing some of his memory. He can’t remember a conversation two minutes ago, and sometimes his speech is jumbled up,” she shared, adding, “But he’s blown me away with how well he’s doing. We don’t want an end date for him, we want to keep fighting.”
We are sending our best wishes and prayers to the family. Share this with others so they can send their support as well.
