Following up from previous articles concerning 2-year-old Oliver, he will soon be released from hospital and allowed home to begin his oncological treatment.
First reports after the brain operation spoke of a top team of surgeon being able to remove 90% of the tumour, which was described as the size of a mandarin, located on his brain stem, leaving him unable to walk and talk.
It later became known that after this gruelling operation (lasting from 08.00h to 18.00h, needing a 15-strong surgical-operation team) they actually managed to remove 98.4% of the tumour, known as an ependymoma.
It is a tumor that arises from the ependymaa tissue of the central nervous system. Usually, in paediatric cases the location is intracranial, while in adults it is spinal. The common location of an intracranial ependymoma is the fourth ventricle.
According to the doctors at Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona, the child will be able to return home within four or five days. Then his chemotherapy treatment will begin over a space of two month. After this, he will have a head scan to see how much of the remaining part of the tumour remains. From there it is proton-beam radiotherapy — there are only two of this kind of machine in Spain, one of which is in Madrid where Oliver will receive his treatment.
Specialist doctor in child, brain tumours, Doctor Celia Cruz, explained that this kind of surgical intervention and treatment has a success rate of two out of every three patients.
You can read our previous articles on Oliver here and here.
(News: Herradura/Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)