THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019 WEST BRITON  15
Spring
6
6Evie, who is nearly two, was found to have a brain tumour
Parents’ distress
over little Evie’s
tumour diagnosis
by Shannon Hards has been left to grow for a year. There
shannon.hards@reachplc.com
@Shannon_Hards
T
he parents of a “special little
girl” were heartbroken to dis-
cover she had been living with a
brain tumour for the past year.
Lauren Jenkins and Alfie Mitchell
revealed they were “absolutely terri-
fied” after learning Evie, who is almost
two years old, could only have three
weeks to live if she doesn’t have imme-
diate surgery.
Lauren, from Threemilestone, said
her daughter had been closely moni-
tored by healthcare professionals for
the past 15 months and, despite being
constantly “floppy” and unable to
move her limbs, was never given an
MRI scan that could have identified
her growing brain tumour.
She said they feel like they have been
failed by the Royal Cornwall Hospital,
Treliske, and pray their daughter will
pull through.
Lauren, 25, said she and Evie trav-
elled to Bristol Children’s Hospital a
couple of weeks ago for a planned
operation to insert a feeding device
into her stomach but during pre-op
assessments staff became concerned.
“They noticed her oxygen levels
were quite low and did some more
testing because she has a developmen-
tal delay and has had problems with
weight loss,” said Lauren. “She also has
a chromosome abnormality which
they thought was causing her issues.
“They did the tests and still weren’t
happy and thought something was
wrong because she was in a paralysed
state and wasn’t moving her limbs.
“They did an MRI scan and then
took me to a room to tell me that she
has a last-stage tumour and 98% of it is
in her brain stem with a little bit in the
top of her spine.
“She has had a lot of input at Treliske
and two admissions because of her
extreme weight loss and acid reflux.
She has been on the Gwithian Unit for
eight and ten-week stays and had reg-
ular appointments. But this tumour
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have been a lot of people involved in
her care and lots of people failed to
investigate further.
“She saw so many people in Corn-
wall and they took one look at her here
(in Bristol) and said, ‘Let’s do an MRI’.
“They have told us that without
emergency treatment she would have
three weeks left to live.
“We are now facing risking losing
our child when we came up here for a
relatively standard operation. I can’t
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“We are really angry and we want
people to know.
“We put all of our trust in that hospi-
tal and they have failed her.”
Lauren said Evie is “quite bubbly” VIOLA
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“She is quite resilient, bless her heart
– she has been living with this and I
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don’t know how she is still alive,” she This weekend
said. “She is our child, so we are going
to be biased, but she is so special.
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“She is so good especially consider-
ing she must be in so much pain.”
Evie’s aunt has set up a fundraising
appeal to help Lauren and Alfie stay in
Bristol. To donate, visit justgiving.com/
crowdfunding/sam-avery-1
Hospital’s reply
Statement from Royal
Cornwall Hospitals Trust
»
»“We are in touch with the Bristol QUICK AVAILABLE
Children’s Hospital team caring for DELIVERY FROM STOCK
Evie and our thoughts are very much
with Evie’s parents at such a
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