Little Harvey full of life after doctors discover tumour
HARVEY Giliam started the Sunday morning like any otherbut by the end of the day, the 18-month-old would be in an induced coma and on an emergency flight from Darwin to the Royal Children’s Hospital.
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HARVEY Giliam started the Sunday morning like any other; pointing out animals in the picture books to his Dad in bed and tearing around the house with the new-found thrill of a toddler who has just learnt to run.
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But by the end of that day, February 5, the 18-month-old would be in an induced coma and on an emergency flight from Darwin to the Royal Children’s Hospital, after scans revealed a lemon-sized tumour in his brain.
When he woke up, he had lost his sight due to the tumour growing out of his optic nerve.
Despite RCH neurosurgeon Wirginia Maixner’s initial fears that they were dealing with a highly malignant tumour, test results this week showed some good news. The tumour hasn’t spread or grown, and is most likely benign.
“He’s lucky to have survived initially, but he’s still got a lot of tumour left and has lost vision in the process,” Ms Maixner said. “Now we need to decide what chemotherapy to start, and potentially recover some of his vision.”
Six weeks after that mercy flight, Courtney Weston and Allen Giliam have taken their son home — to their new home near Allen’s family in Leongatha so they can be close to the expertise of the RCH.
As doctors plot the best course of treatment to safely shrink Harvey’s tumour, with high-dose chemotherapy to start shortly, the couple will return to the Northern Territory in shifts to pack up their belongings and get their house ready for sale, for a permanent move back to Victoria.
They now start physical therapies aiming to give Harvey confidence to relearn how to walk and navigate in his new darkened world. His parents are drawing strength from their chatty toddler, who is just as curious and energetic as he was before.
“You have a bad night when you sleep away from him,” said Ms Weston. “But as soon as you walk back into the hospital room, he’s laughing and smiling and wanting cuddles.
“He is getting us through because he’s just getting on with life and is still so happy.”
Mr Giliam said Harvey’s progress had amazed them; with their son still learning new words while in hospital and he had started crawling again just this week.
“We want him to have a normal, happy, independent life,” he said. “We don’t want this to define him.”
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