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In the UK, doctors discovered a tumor on a short man that was blocking his growth. After surgery, the man gradually returned to normal height.
The story seems to come out of a fairy tale, yet it is real and told by The Mirror at the end of March. Jamie Connolly, a man suffering from growth retardation was able to regain a completely normal height after the extraction of a tumor in his brain. He reveals his story today during Brain Tumor Awareness Month in the UK.
Tumor detected after epileptic seizure
As a teenager, Jamie Connolly is known in his college to measure only 1m20, the height of a child of 7 or 8 years old. He and his whole family then think that he is suffering from growth retardation. But at the age of 16, Jamie suffers an epileptic seizure while playing video games. MRI reveals the unthinkable: “A slow-growing tumor had formed in Jamie’s brain, stunting his development” indicates the newspaper.
The young man then underwent a first operation to remove part of this tumor, followed by three others. Its growth then resumed without delay. Now Jamie Connolly is 35 and over 1m70 tall…. a perfectly normal size for a man.
“Brain tumors can defy all beliefs”
The man remains under surveillance to this day: part of the tumor still remains in his brain, because removing everything would have been too dangerous. But apart from a change in vision, which requires him to wear glasses, Jamie lives quite normally today. His story, on the other hand, is dear to him, and he wishes to share it to raise awareness of brain tumors and their risks:
“I am lucky that my tumor was detected at an early stage. As long as I can, I will raise awareness about the disease”he argues
Asked about this particular case, Dr. Karen Noble of Brain Tumor Research said : “The effects of a brain tumor can often defy belief, with personality changes, selective memory loss or adults having growth spurts. Brain tumors near the pituitary can cause extreme changes in physical height or delays in puberty. This is due to the tumor affecting the levels of hormones produced by the gland.”