The mother of one-year-old Capri, Elissa Hilsden (30), from the English town of Biggleswade, sought medical help after a friend alerted her to the unusual inclination of her little girl’s head. writes a diary.
Elissa first noticed something was wrong with her daughter’s health shortly after her first birthday. “She had cold-like symptoms, which I attributed to her starting daycare. I made an appointment with the doctor and they told me that it was probably a virus and that it would pass,” she explained.
But when her friend expressed concern about the angle of Capri’s head, Elissa’s concerns resurfaced. “I got a message from a friend who suggested that Capri might have something with the ear. Over the weekend, she noticed that Capri tilts her head to the side and now she noticed it in the photos and videos as well,” explained Elissa, who immediately looked at her daughter’s photos and videos from the past few weeks. “I realized that her head was actually slightly tilted. I felt guilty that I hadn’t noticed,” admitted.
The little girl’s parents became more and more anxious and rushed her to the hospital. At first, the medical staff thought they had uncovered the reason for her tilted head. “They checked her out and said she had an ear infection, which was probably the cause of the tilted head. So she was on antibiotics for a week,” mom Capri said.
But during that week, Elissa noticed another disturbing development in one of her daughter’s eyes. “Sometimes when she looked at me, her right eye seemed to be kind of empty. It’s hard to describe, but when I looked at it, I felt like she wasn’t looking at me at all.” she described an unusual symptom.
As Capri’s symptoms persisted even after a course of antibiotics, she underwent a CT scan, which revealed the devastating reality. “We were told the terrible news that Capri had a massive brain tumor. That’s when everything came crashing down.” he recalls with pain. The girl subsequently underwent emergency 12-hour brain surgery, with surgeons only able to remove 80% of the tumor.
The tumor was sent for analysis on November 22 Capri doctors confirmed Embryonal Multilayered Rosette Tumor (ETMR), a rare and highly aggressive form of childhood brain cancer. Parents were warned that without further removal of the tumor, their daughter could only live for two months. The tragedy was made worse by the fact that Capri during her recovery she got sepsis and required urgent intensive care.
Once Capri was in a stable state, the surgical team successfully removed additional parts of the tumor. She also underwent the collection of stem cells and the introduction of a drain to relieve pressure in the brain. Her first of six intensive chemotherapy treatments began on December 20, and parents Elissa and Anthony spent more than a month by their daughter’s side in the ward.
The parents also founded shortly before Christmas a fundraiser that allowed them both to stay at her bedside while also helping cover travel expenses and necessary home improvements between cycles of chemotherapy.
