Boy, 6, rushed to hospital after ‘breathlessness’ turned out to be ‘huge mass that MOVED his heart and crushed lung’

EDDIE Pessoa de Araujo was just six years old when doctors discovered a huge mass in his chest.

It had moved his heart towards the centre and begun crushing one of his lungs in the process.

PAEddie Pessoa de Araujo, who was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia[/caption]

PAThe six-year-old (right) with younger brother Leo[/caption]

His parents had been worried for a while that their Lego-loving son kept developing fevers, which made him very lethargic.

His mum Harri, from London, said: “What we started noticing at the end of 2020 was that he was getting low-grade fevers that were just knocking him out.

“They were 37.8C, maybe pushing 38C, but they were to the point where he would not even sit upright. He would lay there basically in the dark.

“This started happening every four weeks, and then it started getting more frequent.

“By the time we got to, I think it was around March or April 2021, he was getting them every two weeks – just really knocked out by something that didn’t seem to have any other symptoms than a low-grade fever.”

Harri took Eddie to the GP, where tests showed nothing abnormal.

A second doctor also ran blood tests, which failed to show anything unusual.

The family asked for a referral to a specialist paediatrician and it was during that appointment that a chest X-ray was ordered.

“There was one symptom that really sticks in my mind and that is that we were reading a bedtime story and Eddie was really out of breath for no reason,” Harri said.

“I said that to the paediatrician and he said, ‘OK, I’m going to add a chest X-ray as well’ to the other tests he was doing.”

Eddie underwent several tests in one afternoon.

That night, after he was asleep, his mother received a phone call.

“The paediatrician said to me, ‘Eddie has a mass half the size of one of his lungs showing up on his chest X-ray.

“You need to wake him up right now and you need to take him to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital because we don’t know how that mass is compromising him’.”

Eddie was rushed into hospital, where the process of diagnosing him with cancer gathered pace.

“It literally was like the world had gone into slow motion,” Harri said.

“I know it’s a cliche, but it felt like we were free-falling.

“To this day, that feeling of just free-falling – you don’t ever forget it.”

Medics told the family they could not admit Eddie and that he would need specialist treatment “because of the level of seriousness of the mass on his chest”.

“It had actually moved his heart into the centre and one of his lungs wasn’t aerating properly,” Harri added.

“We waited for a specialist ambulance to come and pick us up, and we were transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) at about 4am.

“The next day, he was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL).”

LIFE-CHANGING DIAGNOSIS

T-ALL is an aggressive type of blood cancer in which too many abnormal T-cells are produced in the bone marrow.

It accounts for around a quarter of all ALL cases and is more likely to affect young adults, according to Cancer Research UK.

The most common symptoms include weakness or fatigue, a fever or night sweats, difficulty breathing and unexpected weight loss.

Some people also experience bleeding gums and bruises.

Eddie had steroids to reduce the size of the mass and was put on chemotherapy straight away.

Overall, the youngster underwent two-and-a-half years of treatment before being given the all-clear.

He rang the end-of-treatment bell last week.

Eddie (right) with mum Harri, dad Jamie and brother LeoPA

PAThe family in hospital after Eddie was given the all-clear[/caption]

Medics at GOSH also offered the family whole genome sequencing to gather information about Eddie’s cancer and the risks for younger brother Leo, now aged four.

Harri said: “Our consultant said the number one question parents ask is, ‘What’s the prognosis for my child?’

“And the second question parents ask if they have a second child is, ‘What does this mean for my second child?’

“For us, the genome sequencing ticked both of those boxes.

“We wanted as much information as possible about Eddie’s treatment, it was an absolute no-brainer.”

The test showed there was nothing in Eddie’s genome sequencing that would suggest he would suffer from any sort of aggravating factors.

“It also suggested that it had nothing to do with genes, so Leo was no more likely to get it than any other child in the population,” Harri added.

“So, we obviously found it incredibly comforting at that point to have that piece of information.”

Harri said of the diagnosis: “I always say that having a child with a cancer diagnosis feels like you’ve been standing on a trapdoor all these years without knowing.

“Then after the diagnosis, you are in free-fall. And even when things are stable again, you are constantly aware that the trapdoor is still there and there is a possibility it could open again at any time.

“Having access to whole genome sequencing gave us some sense of reassurance.

“It helped us turn something so devastating into something positive.”

Eddie underwent two and a half years of treatment and rang the end of treatment bell last weekPA

PAThe youngster had genome sequencing to establish if his brother was at risk[/caption]