Newborn diagnosed with brain tumour after doctors spot detail on nail

 A newborn baby narrowly survived a brain tumour, which doctors only found while examining a tiny infection under his fingernail.

Sam Sharp, 39, from Penicuik, Midlothian, gave birth to her son Joey in 2020.

Just 11 days later, she returned with him to hospital after he struggled to feed, lost weight, developed jaundice and began twitching intermittently.

Doctors investigated a small infection in one of his fingernails, with an ultrasound revealing the underlying cause of his symptoms was a brain tumour.

Ms Sharp, an orthopaedic nurse, said: “Joey had only been home for a week and we were having visits from the midwife and health visitor every day because his newborn jaundice wasn’t improving, he wasn’t feeding well and he’d started losing weight.

“He was also having tiny spasms while feeding but, at the time, the midwives couldn’t quite work out what was causing them.

“Once we were in hospital, doctors noticed what looked like a tiny infection in one of his fingernails. It was so small, almost like a grain of sand under the nail. We had no idea then that within hours we’d be facing every parent’s worst nightmare.”

Joey underwent three brain surgeries and nine rounds of chemotherapy afterwards, with two operations to remove the tumour, and a third to help alleviate the scar tissue that remained, which had prevented drugs from treating his seizures.

At this point, he suffered from more than 30 epileptic seizures a day, and needed feeding tubes to eat.

He took part in clinical trials to help researchers gain a better understanding of chemotherapy treatment for babies.

Ms Sharp said: “We were told that without surgery that day, Joey was unlikely to survive.

“I can still remember that conversation as though it happened yesterday. Because it was during the Covid pandemic, my husband Steven had already been sent home under the hospital restrictions, so I was sitting there alone with our tiny baby while doctors explained what they’d found.

“As a nurse, I understood enough to know how serious the situation was, but nothing prepares you for hearing words like that about your own child.

“Thankfully, the hospital staff made sure my husband was allowed back in before Joey was taken to theatre. Watching your newborn baby disappear through those theatre doors is something no parent should ever have to experience.”

Specialists, who took samples of the tumour, discovered it was a glioblastoma, an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer.

But on August 4 2021, towards the end of his treatment, the family received the news they had hoped for.

Ms Sharp said: “Joey was in the children’s day ward receiving his final chemotherapy when our consultant walked over to us. I remember she had tears in her eyes.

“It was an open ward with lots of other families with very sick children around us, so she couldn’t celebrate loudly, but she quietly told us Joey’s latest scan showed no evidence of disease.

“We’d been preparing ourselves to hear that he would probably need more surgery after chemotherapy, so hearing those words was overwhelming. For the first time in months, we felt like we could finally breathe again.”

Now aged five, the youngster has cerebral palsy, with little use of his right hand, wears a leg brace and uses a wheelchair for longer distances.

Despite his circumstances, his mother says he has a love for life, enjoying swimming and spending time with his siblings, eight-year-old Carly and one-year-old Robbie.