Spanish doctors save a Peruvian child evicted by a rare type of cancer

Mathías has been born again and has done so more than 9,000 kilometers from where he did it for the first time, in Lima (Peru). Now, 13 years later, it has not been in a neonatology operating room, but at the hands of a team of neurosurgeons and neurophysiologists who intervened on the child on July 2 at the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Polyclinic, in Ibiza (Spain). The challenge was not easy. They had to remove a rare tumor located in an area that no one dared to 'touch'. "

" says the

mother, Janet.

The mass was about seven centimeters and, as she explains, was in what "doctors know as

." In the words of the specialist who led the operation, Pedro Llinás, head of Neurosurgery at the hospital center, it was a pilocytic astrocytoma, a benign tumor that if completely removed, surgery can be curative. The main problem is that removing it from inside the spinal cord [between vertebrae 2 and 5] is not an easy task. "

Since Mathías began complaining of very bad headaches and vomiting in January 2020, Janet has not stopped seeking help, moving from hospital to hospital and from city to city.

with an MRI. Some doctors saw the operation as impossible and others said that, if it was carried out, "the child would be quadriplegic and connected to a respirator for life," says Janet. At his insistence, they finally decided to intervene but only managed to remove 20% of the tumor.

During this journey, Mathías was getting worse, losing his balance, unable to walk, he had a bad cough, he was short of breath and he did not eat (he went from 36 to 28 kilos).

"

."

He entered the hospice program.

The inability to open any other doors left her "shattered."

There was no hope.

"We dedicate ourselves to living each day as if it were the last, we even traveled to the lost city of the Incas, Machu Picchu, one of the seven wonders of the world, one of the seven wonders of the world."

"I couldn't let Mathías die"

Yet at night, as Janet watched her son sleep, she wondered if she was really going to let him go. He began to "read his medical history, analyze each report, see on the internet what other alternatives there were in the US, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, France, Switzerland ... I wrote letters translated into different languages ​​... I couldn't let die Mathías ".

There, a media campaign began in Peru, through social networks, television programs or the support of well-known footballers such as Jefferson Farfán. Her story reached the 'ears' of one of the neurosurgeons at the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Polyclinic, Xavier Santander, of Peruvian origin, who decided to contact her to find out in detail the child's medical history. After a thorough evaluation, the Neurosurgery team decided to intervene. warning of obstacles and risks.

"

, with scars, cysts and adhesions that distorted the normal anatomy. To this must be added that the entire cervical region had been treated with radiotherapy and that the patient had received chemotherapy. Despite this, the tumor had continued to progress towards the brain stem. And finally, the patient had a cachectic state, weighing only 27 ", explains Llinás.

"

, even unable to breathe on his own."

The moment of truth

There was no other way. The intervention was scheduled for July 2 and, with the money raised in their country, they were able to "cross the Atlantic" until they reached Ibiza. The surgery lasted about six hours. "We performed a posterior approach to the cervical spine and we managed to expose the spinal cord from the junction of the first and second cervical vertebrae to the end of the fifth, not without going through a lot of trouble given that all the fibrosed and adhered tissues were present", explains the neurosurgeon.

"Once the nervous tissue was exposed, we explored the different surfaces of the spinal cord and the cysts it presented using intramedullary electrical stimulation techniques. In this phase,

." With the functional map of the spinal cord, Llinás continues, "we began to remove the tumor tissue respecting the functional anatomical areas. We managed to reach the tumor tissue up to the junction of the medulla oblongata with the medulla above the first cervical vertebra. At the end, motor function and sensory potentials of the cord were present. "

When the patient woke up, recalls the specialist, "the first thing he said was that he was hungry and wanted to eat something; when I saw that he was moving his arms and legs, I burst into tears." And he was not the only one. Janet reproduces the first words she heard after the interminable six hours: "Janet we have good news, we

and there have been no complications." Hearing it, "I almost fainted with excitement."

Mathías was hospitalized for around 10 days. "His recovery has been amazing. He was not in the ICU for more than 24 hours and at 48 hours, he was already walking," says his mother. Now,

(on October 28) and the best gift is their new forecast. "A new stage opens for him, a second chance [...] I hope that all this has been just a parenthesis in his long life," says Llinás.

Long rehabilitation sessions await you to regain your lost strength over the next few months.

"The worst is over, although he continues to fight," says the mother.

"It continues to be monitored and with pending controls and reviews."

Besides, due to a complication of the first surgery performed in his country (obstructive hydrocephalus), "Mathías still has some limitations. We hope that in time, he will also be able to intervene to improve his quality of life. We will return to Spain as soon as we can."

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