A young mother was shocked to learn that the reason her 13-month-old baby boy stopped crawling and laughing was because he had a potentially fatal tumour. Prior to his diagnosis two months ago, Zaki was described as a 'smiley' and happy child.
Discover our latest podcast
Not Himself
In September, Caitlin Molyneux, 22, begun to notice her little boy was not acting like his usual cheerful self.
According to the Liverpool Echo, little Zaki was initially diagnosed with a viral infection when he was taken to see a GP. Caitlin's sister Courtney told the publication:
It got to the point where he just wasn't himself at all.He wasn't laughing, he stopped crawling, a little bit of everything, he was just lethargic.
But when he was not getting any better after some time, Caitlin decided to take him to a hospital, where Zaki was diagnosed with thymoma. This means Zaki had a life-threatening tumour wrapped around his heart and exerting pressure on his internal organs. According to Courtney:
They said it was the whole size of his chest, it was really big. He's the only baby in literature who has been diagnosed with this. Alder Hey said there was a little girl or boy in Paris who was four with this. They were the youngest at the time but now Zaki is; at the time he was 11 months.
The family was dealt another shocking block when doctors said they could not perform a surgery to remove the tumour due to its size.
Hope For A Christmas Miracle
However, medics at the Alder Hey children’s hospital decided the best way around it was to reduce the size of the tumour to make it operable. Little Zaki is now on his third course of chemotherapy.
The family has been left feeling anxious, but hopeful of receiving some good news by Christmas that the tumour has shrunk to a size small enough for it to be removed.
Courtney, from Toxteth, Liverpool, has set up a GoFundMe page to help her sister and her children get through these difficult times.
Everyone who knows my sister Caitlin knows how strong she has been and that her children are everything to her. We were all devastated - nothing like this has ever really happened in our family. Obviously we've had deaths in the family but nothing to do with children being ill like this, it was a big big shock for all of us.
