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Our Kids - Meet Maurice

In July 2006, three-year-old Maurice started coming home from daycare with severe headaches. His parents thought it might just be dehydration from the heat, but that week he also began vomiting and his headaches got worse.

Maurice

Maurice, Brain Tumour

His worried parents brought him to their local emergency room, where Maurice underwent a CT scan. Results confirmed Maurice had a brain tumour.


When rushed to The Hospital for Sick Children doctors discovered the reason for Maurice’s severe headaches, hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is when the cerebrospinal fluid pathway is blocked in the brain and causes intense pressure; in this case it was the tumour that blocked the fluid. Maurice underwent surgery to relieve the growing pressure and was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancerous brain tumour known as pineoblastoma. Three weeks later, Maurice had a second, more intense surgery to remove the tumour lodged between the two lobes of his brain.


Because of this rare condition and his young age, Maurice’s doctors used extreme caution when planning his radiation and chemotherapy treatment plan. In early August, Maurice began radiation and in November, he began intensive chemotherapy along with stem cell transplants. Despite the rough nature of both of these treatments, Maurice’s smile and energy never left him.


Although the radiation shrank the tumour and the chemotherapy threw the final punch, Maurice still goes to SickKids for basic routine check ups, including MRI scans to monitor his brain. Doctors were pleased with his last MRI scan. Bubbly and energetic, Maurice started junior kindergarten last fall.


SickKids has the only research laboratory in Canada dedicated to paediatric brain tumour research.

 

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