IN JAMAICA (UPDATE) : 14-year-old Leslie-Ann Goulbourne's with tumour gets worse as she awaits radiation.... Since last June, Leslie-Ann has been diagnosed with germinoma, a non-malignant tumour that affects the brain and the spine...."What I realised yesterday (Thursday) is that her neck is not moving. The neck is now stiff and in a straight position," Andrea Williams, the child's mother, said on Friday.

BY DONNA HUSSEY-WHYTE Sunday Observer staff reporter husseyd@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, February 22, 2015    

SINCE last Sunday when 14-year-old Leslie-Ann Goulbourne's condition was highlighted in the Sunday Observer, her mother and her doctor have reported that the child is getting worse as the days go by.

(L)GOULBOURNE ... her condition has got worse & (R)WILLIAMS ...
I thank God that Dr Charles is her surgeon

Since last June, Leslie-Ann has been diagnosed with germinoma, a non-malignant tumour that affects the brain and the spine. She has undergone four brain surgeries, six weeks of radiotherapy, weekly visits to the hospital and numerous tests and scans. But the tumour has now spread to the teen's spine, crippling one of her arms and partially blinding the other eye.

Germinoma is a germ cell tumour that forms in the pineal gland area of the brain. Pineal tumour patients typically experience a build-up of fluid within the brain, causing headaches, nausea and impaired vision.

"What I realised yesterday (Thursday) is that her neck is not moving. The neck is now stiff and in a

straight position,"

Andrea Williams, the child's mother, said on Friday. "The left hand is

not moving and the right one, which had little life in it is dead now. The pain is going further down in the spine. She used to feel it up to the neck, but it's going down in the back now. She is telling me to rub her spine downwards, so it is getting worse. The fact that her neck is not moving and she can't turn her neck at all, shows that it is getting much worse."

Along with that, the child is now suffering from shortness of breath, and, as explained by her neurosurgeon Dr Peter Charles last week, this is as a result of the tumour compressing against the spine, getting larger and squeezing tighter. The part being compressed, he explained, controls breathing and movement of the hands and legs. He noted then that this could result in the child becoming paralysed from the neck down and she could even stop breathing. more