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Mom Uses Internet to Diagnose Daughter’s Brain Tumor
When Carly Hornbuckle’s 4-year-old daughter began waking up listless and sick to her stomach last year, the 25-year-old mother immediately made an appointment to see a doctor. But when that doctor dismissed little Bella’s symptoms as nothing more than a bad case of sibling rivalry, Hornbuckle took matters into her own hands.
While Hornbuckle, who lives near Leicester in the UK, thought it was possible that the arrival of baby sister Imogen had upset her eldest daughter, she had a nagging suspicion that something more serious was going on. Convinced that her daughter was truly ill, she did what any modern mother would do: She Googled her symptoms.
What she discovered was that Bella’s rapid weight loss and daily headaches could be symptoms of a brain tumor. Armed with that alarming information, she returned to her doctor who again dismissed her fears. But Hornbuckle’s Internet research had left her feeling so uneasy that she decided a second opinion was in order.
While her new doctor felt it was unlikely that Bella had a brain tumor, he did not just dismiss her fears and send her on her merry way. He referred her to a specialist for a scan that would rule out anything serious.
Sadly, that scan proved Hornbuckle’s fears were justified. Bella was suffering from medulloblastoma, a fast-growing, malignant tumor that, if left untreated, can spread through the brain and spinal cord. But because of mom’s persistence, the tumor was discovered relatively early and doctors were able to surgically remove it. After six weeks of radiotherapy, Bella is now on the mend.
While Bella may ultimately suffer some learning difficulties down the road and may even have some hearing loss and kidney damage, she is alive and well thanks to her mother’s persistence and good old Dr. Google.
Image: Danard Vincente/Flickr
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6 Comments
patricia commented on Feb 09 10 at 11:17 amGood gracious, weight loss and daily headaches in a 4-year old are being dismissed as sibling rivalry? Weight loss?? Goodness.
Ri-chan commented on Feb 09 10 at 2:38 pmFirst off, I’m glad that the little girl’s tumor was discovered and treated. However, I know of too many parents, and people in general, who use the internet as a doctor. They are convinced that their child has this horrible disease or that horrible condition and they bug their doctors with it, this wastes the doctors time and is pointless. Maybe this woman had done this multiple times before, looked up something like “fever, headache, and vomiting” and became convinced her daughter had meningitis when it was really just a sinus infection. The doctor may have just seen this as another example of the womans paranoia that seems so common today.
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Feb 09 10 at 4:50 pmBecause the world needs more Jenny McCarthy wannabes, graduating from the university of Google. You can use the information on the internet smart, or you can use the internet stupid. This woman was a diligent parent. Good on her.
Lalalala commented on Feb 09 10 at 9:05 pmSomething similar but thankfully not as serious happened to me. I was hit with a softball in the mouth during ball practice, and months later started having pain in the jaw in the general location. Our regular dentist told my mother that I was being a hypochondriac and there was no reason to do x-rays. My mother took me for a second opinion after noticing I was tearing food into small pieces to put back in my mouth due to being unable to bite. Turns out the softball had chipped a tooth, caused an infection in my jaw and started destroying the bone that held my teeth in. I was lucky that I only lost one tooth and had to go through surgery to repair the damage.
NO doctor should deny simple diagnostic procedures when there are symptoms that warrant a possible problem. If the parent is concerned – they should DO IT. At the very least, there’s a bill for a procedure that turned out okay.
No matter where a parent gets the info (internet, med book, whatever) no one should have their concerns summarily dismissed when there are SYMPTOMS present.
LogicalMama commented on Feb 10 10 at 11:28 pmAs with Lalalala, we have a similar story in our family. My sister was four shortly after I was born. At the same time of my birth, our father died. My sister wasn’t potty training (late for a girl and a fourth child…)… in fact, she was bedwetting, daytime wetting, foul smelling urine, high needs, lots of UTI’s. Everyone assumed it was psychological due to no longer “being the baby of the family” and losing her father. Naturally, it was a safe and logical assumption, however as time went on, it worsened. The doctors just thought it was normal UTI’s from not wiping front to back! Even though it worsened and even though she was a seemingly well-adjusted child, they still felt it was purely emotional. Despite the severity of the infections, they never dove very deep in to her issues and merely bandaided with antibiotics, ect. Finally, in middle school, they were doing a standard blood pressure check at our school and her pressure was through the roof, she was going into kidney failure. Turned out she had a congenital kidney defect and the blood pressure check saved her (talk about divine intervention). She went in for immediate surgery to remove her kidney. During that surgery, they found a heart defect that needed repair, but not immediately! Four years later, she had the surgery to repair her heart. Pretty amazing!
andrea commented on May 21 10 at 12:12 amParents have to trust their instincts- its the best we cando!!!
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