'Ten operations and still fighting' - family praises brave Lyla O’Donovan as she faces month in hospital
Lyla O’Donovan’s parents Paul and Kirsty have been told she faces a three-to-four-week stay in hospital where doctors will try to induce a seizure in a bid to find out more about her health.
Today, dad Paul, 35, from Hartlepool, said the stay could include sleep deprivation to bring on the seizure.
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Hide AdThe news comes after Lyla’s trip to specialists in Bristol where she faced more tests and her family was given fresh news.
Paul explained: “They told us that she has to go back in to hospital for three-to-four weeks where she will have a lot of tests and they will provoke a seizure where they might find out more on the cause of the seizures.”
The aim will be to find out whether they are having an effect on her tumour and causing her brain damage, and whether Lyla faces more surgery.
But if they are not affecting Lyla’s brain, there is a possibility she could go without further surgery and live a life with seizures, said her dad.
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Hide AdSadly, Lyla had another seizure in the hotel in Bristol before her hospital appointment and Paul said: “She was tearful because she was hundreds of miles from her mam and it was nervy for her.
"I think it was from her being scared and anxious, and yet she made minimum fuss.”
Paul recently shared a Hartlepool Mail front page from 2016 on social media, from when Lyla was first diagnosed. He reflected on the day they first found out that Lyla had a brain tumour and how his brave daughter is still fighting now.
"It is crazy when you think about what she has been through,” he said. “The 17th of this month will be the fourth anniversary of that major surgery. There was a 50/50 chance that she would survive.
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Hide Ad"And yet she is still really positive and she smiles about things. She has been through ten operations and she is still fighting.”
Lyla’s story is an amazing one.
But as always, Lyla soon fought back.
Yet Lyla has never stopped thinking of others despite everything she is going through herself and launched a project to help other children who, like her, have to face up to needles and operations in hospital. She organised 500 stress balls to be sent to other poorly children.
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Hide AdPaul is from Hartlepool and the family now lives in Ushaw Moor, near Durham.
He explained how Lyla always wants to do something for other sick children and recently asked her dad to send a teddy bear to a poorly boy because she knew a teddy had been a comfort to her.
You can follow Lyla and her story by visiting the Lyla’s brain tumour journey page on Facebook.