2-year-old with brain tumor to undergo surgery in Barcelona on Friday after traveling from Mexico
Oliver flew in medicalized plane thanks to anonymous €200,000 donation
Oliver, a two-and-a-half-year-old child with a brain stem tumor, will undergo surgery on Friday in Barcelona's Sant Joan de Déu hospital.
After being diagnosed with an Ependymoma on October 13 and given only 15 days to live if he did not receive treatment, his condition worsened. He was initially seen by doctors in Mexico, where he currently resides after moving there over a year ago from the southern Spanish city of Málaga.
"At the hospital they don't want/can't operate" on him, his father wrote on Instagram of the medical center in Mexico.
"We are trapped in Mexico as Oliver cannot fly until he undergoes a contrast MRI and doctors drain the liquid in his head," the family shared on social media on October 18. Because of the tumor, Oliver stopped eating, speaking, and walking.
His parents preferred for him to be hospitalized in Spain, and after a public social media call to financially help the family, an anonymous €196,400 donation helped pay for a medicalized plane that landed in Barcelona on Wednesday.
After the first tests in Barcelona on Thursday, Sant Joan de Déu confirmed that Oliver is currently being treated with corticosteroids, rehydration, and nutrition to counter the extreme weakness that he had when he landed.
Sant Joan de Déu hospital is considered one of the leading pediatric health centers in Spain and in Europe.
Oliver will have his first surgery on Friday which will allow doctors to implant a valve to control intracranial hypertension.
Once he is recovered and ready, the child will undergo a second surgery, according to a press statement shared by the hospital on Thursday. It is expected to take place a week after the first clinical intervention and will allow doctors to partially or totally remove Oliver's tumor from his brain stem.