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| A rare disease that made a 23-year-old boy look like a 12-year-old child |
Brazil's 23-year-old Luz Augusto Marcio Marques, also known as Gato, was like a normal child until the age of seven, but then he started having severe headaches and later brain damage. A tumor was diagnosed.
It was a disease that affects only one in a million people.
At the age of eight, Gatto had to undergo surgery to remove the tumor, but the move was risky as the operation could have left him speechless, unable to see, or walk, and stunted his growth. Then something similar happened and unusually at about age 12, his growth stopped.
Gutto's head continued to ache and the pain became more severe, but no doctor could diagnose where the problem was.
"When I was in school, I started having headaches, I couldn't study and some doctors said I had a psychological problem, I was lazy while some other doctors said it was just a virus," says Gatto. Is.'
When Gatto suffered a headache one day, he was taken to a city hospital where doctors were able to figure out what was wrong with Gatto. He had a disease called craniopharyngioma.
He says that at that time the doctors told my aunt that this disease is dangerous and advised me to undergo an operation otherwise I may die in a few days.
Actually, there is a fluid inside the human brain which the brain absorbs every eight hours, but Gutto's brain was not absorbing this fluid, and the accumulation of fluid put pressure on the brain, which caused a lot of pain.
The hardest part for Gatto was facing this situation in isolation after the surgery. "They locked me in a glass room so they could examine me to see if I had epilepsy if I would be able to speak, see and move my legs," he recalls.
After a thorough medical examination, everything was fine, but the surgical removal of the tumor affected the pituitary gland, an important part of the brain. This gland is responsible for producing growth hormones in humans, among other bodily functions.
Gattu says, "I was tested a lot and it was found that I would stop growing because of this, but they (doctors) didn't know when and at what age - 8, 9, or 10 years old." I can. I finally stopped growing at the age of 12.
The neurosurgeon who operated on Gatto's brain, Nirio Uzambuja Jr., explains, 'Doctors removed 20 percent of the tumor to prevent it from affecting other parts of the brain, but later he had to operate twice. Had to. In the first surgery, a tube is placed to drain fluid from the brain to the stomach (called a ventriculoperitoneal shunt), and in the second surgery, a tube is placed inside the tumor and under the skin to deliver radiation treatment called chemotherapy. goes.'
According to Goto, the chemotherapy treatment took a long time and the effect was very good.
"Initially I had chemotherapy three times a week, then it was reduced to twice and once a month and then it even stopped, but I was in a lot of pain because the tube that was inserted into me was very tight," he explains. It was painful. Imagine that there was a tape in the tube and a big needle inside it.
At that time, growth hormones could be increased, but there was a risk that the tumor in his brain would also grow. So it was decided not to take this risk.
In his youth, when he realized that his appearance was not changing and that his growth or appearance had stopped with age, it was another challenge for Gutto to accept his appearance. was
He remembers his state of mind in this state and says 'When I turned 15, I became very stubborn, I did not talk to anyone, I did not go out of the classroom during school breaks. I did not even answer my teacher.
However, as time passed, Gattu accepted his appearance and thanks to the love he received from his family, today he lives a peaceful life with his aunt and cousin.
"Without my family, I wouldn't have been able to face this situation," he says.
"Nowadays, I don't care what people say about my looks, even people in their 20s, 30s, 40s are friends and don't judge me by my looks, they judge me by my looks," he says. I don't say anything. Everyone here knows me. They call me to buy phones and televisions and today I am good and healthy, I speak a lot and I am not ashamed of anything.
Gutto dreams of becoming a photographer and hopes to buy a professional camera soon.
In total, he underwent 15 years of treatment, including seven rounds of chemotherapy and 12 head surgeries, but the tumor in his brain was not 100 percent gone.
Gatto stopped chemotherapy in 2015 and still has a pea-sized tumor in his head but no longer has headaches.