‘She’s scared’: Common kid’s virus leads to brain tumour diagnosis for Eve Robertson
Three-year-old Eve Robertson was hallucinating rainbows and stars on the ceiling of her hospital bed after a common virus lead to a devastating diagnosis.
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Little Eve Robertson would see rainbows and stars on the ceiling of her hospital room – sometimes she’d even see a man walking down the corridor that was never there.
The hallucinations were a symptom of the increasing spinal fluid flowing through the ventricles in her brain. But there is now some fun for Eve in hospital after she experienced the Starlight Children’s Foundation’s Starlight room.
The hallucinations were a condition her mum Amanda Robertson discovered after her then-three-year-old contracted hand, foot and mouth disease at her third birthday party.
It wasn’t all the now-five-year-old developed after contracting the common children’s virus. Eve also has a brain tumour. “She has a pituitary tumour which is a benign tumour that sits on the pituitary gland,” said Ms Robertson, who lives in rural South Australia.
“Eve’s ventricles in her brain were so infected that they were the size of a 54-year-old’s – she now had hydrocephalus because it was left for so long.”
When Eve contracted hand, foot and mouth disease, doctors told Ms Robertson, 37, it would take 12 months for her daughter to feel 100 per cent herself.
“I knew in my gut that there was something not right,” the mum of two said. “She’s falling asleep, she’s falling over, she’s not a typical three-year-old.”
Ms Robertson took her youngest daughter to four GPs before a doctor finally believed something might be wrong with the toddler.
They ordered an MRI that revealed the devastating news.
A months after the diagnosis, Eve underwent a lumbar puncture and a few months later she had surgery to drain the fluid in her ventricles.
Before surgery, Eve suffered a range of heartbreaking symptoms such as hallucinations and disorientation. “She was falling over a lot more, she was sleeping even, having a shower was just too much,” Ms Robertson said.
Following the surgery, the symptoms eased and Eve has been attending the Women’s and Children’s Hospital for check-ups. “Post-surgery, it was really hard to get Eve ready for her appointments because she was scared,” Ms Robertson said. “Once we discovered the Starlight room, it’s not just about going to the hospital.
“She would get excited because she thought that if she was going to the hospital it was also a trip to the Starlight room … it’s a place they can have fun and be themselves.”
The foundation, which helps “sick kids be kids”, is encouraging the public to jump in the water to raise vital funds. Commit to swimming a distance and raise money this month for the Super Swim Challenge.
For more info, go to: starlight.org.au
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Originally published as ‘She’s scared’: Common kid’s virus leads to brain tumour diagnosis for Eve Robertson
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