For five years of fighting the disease, a 10-year-old boy from Kharkiv has already had five tumors removed. Lviv neurosurgeons performed an extremely complicated operation on the boy: they removed the tumor without affecting the areas responsible for breathing, heartbeat and swallowing.
For the first time, the disease – anaplastic ependymoma – manifested itself in kindergarten. It is an aggressive malignant neoplasm that grows rapidly, migrates and appears in different places every time. Since then, doctors have not stopped fighting for his life.
5 highly complex brain surgeries, 16 blocks of aggressive chemotherapy, but three months ago the disease returned. It happened in Germany, where the family moved, fleeing shelling in their native Kharkiv. The doctors stated that the tumor was inoperable. The structure is located near the brain stem with areas and centers responsible for the vital functions of breathing, heartbeat and swallowing. It is very difficult to get to it, it is risky to operate also because the anatomy of the brain is greatly changed after so many operations.
However, the parents did not give up and started looking for a specialist who agreed to at least give their Nikita a chance. He turned out to be Mykhailo Lovha, the head of the Neurosurgery Center of St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital in Lviv, who had previously operated on the boy.
Therefore, a team of neurosurgeons began to plan one of the most complex interventions in their practice. Specialists faced an extremely difficult task: to remove the tumor without affecting the areas responsible for breathing, heartbeat and swallowing. And the doctors successfully coped.
Now Nikita continues the course of chemotherapy. The boy really wants to get well and continue his full studies at school, like all other children. And the doctors are making every effort to make his wish come true. And before the discharge, the family invited the entire team of neurosurgeons, who saved Nikita’s life not for the first time, to visit their home in Kharkiv after the Victory.