A child being diagnosed with cancer is every parent’s nightmare.
But the excruciating pain of hearing both siblings were diagnosed with a rare disease only two weeks apart is unimaginable.
6-year-old Kalea threw up one morning in May and her parents thought she had an upset stomach. However, she continued to vomit and started to complain of headaches. Her mother decided to take her to the A&E department.
Doctors found out that Kalea had a rare, cancerous tumor growing at the back of her brain.
After she was admitted to the hospital so surgeons could get rid of the tumor, her 5-year-old brother Noah began to show similar symptoms.
An MRI showed the younger brother had the same tumor growing in the same part of his brain as Kalea.
Shocked doctors described it as ‘lightning striking twice’ and believed the siblings may have a genetic condition that prompts them to have brain cancer.
Their father, Duncan, said that when Noah telling them that his head hurt, he and his wife thought he might be copying Kalea.
But then, he started to vomit and it became evident something was wrong with him. Exactly two weeks after his 6-year-old sister was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, he also received the same diagnosis.
“(My wife and I) broke down in tears,” Duncan expressed. “How could two kids in 14 days have the exact same tumor? How does that happen?”
Noah also had surgery to remove the tumor that was bigger than his sister’s.
Pediatrician Dr. Lauren told the Los Angeles Times: “When I watched Noah walk down the hall, my heart dropped.
“But, of course, could lightning strike twice? It’s very unusual. It could be random, but probably not.”
The siblings are undergoing genetic testing to determine if their susceptibility to medulloblastoma is hereditary.
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