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BIOGRAPHY
Dani-Ella’s birth was normal and she weighed a healthy 3940kgs. She met all her milestones at the right time except for her speech. We became concerned when she turned 3 and started speech therapy. At 4 and a half Dani-Ella had her first seizure. Her neurologist diagnosed epilepsy but wanted to do an MRI scan to rule out any underlying causes of her seizures. The MRI scan, shortly before her 5th birthday, showed a large, deep seated brain turmour in the speech and language area of the brain. She had surgery immediately but the neurosurgeon was unable to remove the tumour due to bleeding complications. Over the next few months her seizures became uncontrolled on medication. We sought the advice of a well-known neurosurgeon who was confident he could remove her tumour - no one else would do the surgery. On 1st June Dani-Ella underwent a 14 hour surgery and now all the tumour is gone. However, as the tumour had invaded nearly 50% of her brain, she has been left with some disabilities. She is having intensive rehabilitation and we are expecting her to recover fully.
‘Update on Dani-Ella’s Progress.’
In October she became unwell and an emergency CT Scan at RCH Brisbane late on 20 October revealed acute hydrocephalus. She had surgery that night to relieve intracranial pressure and another surgery on 26 October for placement of a VP Shunt. An MRI scan on 1 November to check on the placement of the shunt revealed that the tumour had recurred around the margins of the 6cm cavity left in her brain after her last surgery. The largest nodule was 22mm. We were offered chemotherapy in attempt to stabilise the tumours. We decided to go home for 3 weeks and try and make a decision about her treatment.
Two weeks later she again become unwell and fearing a shunt malfunction or infection we took her back to RCH Brisbane. For a week her team of specialists performed tests which all showed the VP shunt was fine and she was discharged from hospital still very unwell and now complaining of neck and back pain.
We were very concerned about her and on 20 November Richard took her back to Sydney at the urging of Dr Charlie Teo. On 21 November he removed her VP shunt and started her on antibiotics. After 2 days, she had not improved so preparing us for the worse he ordered a CT scan. Unfortunately, the CT scan showed marked tumour progression. Within 4 weeks the tumour had agressively grown around the original site and spread through her brain and spine.
On 24 November a new VP shunt was inserted so that we could bring her home. She arrived home on 26 November.
Our daughter is our hero! Sharon ~ Dani-Ella’s Mum
Sadly, Dani-Ella passed away on January, 1st 2006.
Read Dani-Ella’s full biography here: http://www2.caringbridge.org/hi/daniella/index.htm
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