How little Roux fights fit after 13 OPERATIONS on a brain tumor the size of two oranges that was diagnosed when he was only four weeks old

Roux Owen was just four weeks old when she was diagnosed with an ultra-rare brain tumor the size of two oranges – so large that doctors believe it must have been growing while in the womb.

Yet against all odds (having spent the first six months of his life in hospital undergoing a staggering 13 operations), Roux, now four, is thriving.

Due to the enormous size of the tumor, doctors took a “gradual approach” – removing it in sections.

But after the fourth operation, Roux’s parents, Amy and Antony, were asked to consider stopping treatment, as specialists feared he would be too weak to endure further surgery.

Worse still, the tumor was growing rapidly. Despite this, they persisted and Roux continued to fight, and was given the all-clear shortly before her first birthday.

Since then, he has exceeded everyone’s expectations, says his mother Amy, from Hull: “We were told he would never be able to hold his head up, but he swims regularly, plays football with his older brother, Noah, and is learning new words every day. “. day.

“Because of his drooping left eyelid, he looks like he’s winking, which is like him: he’s a cheeky guy who doesn’t get told what he can and can’t do.”

Roux was born in October 2019, weighing a healthy 9 pounds, 11 ounces, but his parents noticed something wasn’t quite right within a few days.

“My left eye was swollen,” Amy recalls. “We asked the GP, who suggested it could be a minor infection.”

His primary care doctor ordered blood tests that came back clear, but at four weeks Roux was having difficulty feeding and was sleeping all the time.

Antony says: ‘We took him to the pediatric assessment unit. They took samples from his eye and sent us home.

‘Roux just seemed to get worse, yelling and screaming. Our instinct told us that he needed medical help, so we went to the ER.

‘Shortly after arriving, we saw a nurse who asked if Roux’s head had always been that size.

‘My heart stopped and my stomach flipped. I just knew something must be very wrong.

Roux had a scan that revealed a shadow on his brain.

“They took us to a room where a doctor told us that Roux’s life was in danger,” adds Antony. “He said that he had a huge brain tumor and that they were going to have emergency surgery.”

A biopsy revealed that it was a type of tumor called a teratoma. Although they do not normally spread to other parts of the body, they can often grow so quickly that they are life-threatening.

Teratomas are not cancer, so chemotherapy and radiotherapy have no effect.

Surgery was the only option, but due to the large number of blood vessels supplying the tumor, which increases the risk of bleeding, it could not be removed in one go.

“Every time it went down we said goodbye,” Amy says.

During his hospital stay, Roux suffered a stroke, sepsis, brain hemorrhages, clots in his lungs, and lost vision in his left eye, but miraculously survived.

“We were advised several times to take him home and let nature take its course,” says Amy. “But we couldn’t just give it up.”

Although it took almost a year, Roux’s doctors managed to remove the entire tumor and he has remained tumor-free ever since.

Roux’s surgeon, Paul Chumas, says: “The message to other families facing a grim prognosis is: never give up.” Roux’s condition was serious but, in the end, the treatment was a success.’

Antony says: “Roux is a happy little character, who we feel incredibly lucky to have in our lives.”

Amy will be running the London Marathon on April 21 for Brain Tumor Research to help find a cure for all brain tumours. For more details visit: https://braintumourresearch.org/