Natalina Beats Brain Tumour Threat
June 12th, 2010
East Timorese teenager Natalina Moniz was only days from death when she arrived in Brisbane with a brain tumour the size of a mandarin.
But after emergency surgery, ongoing chemotherapy and planned radiation treatment at the Royal Children's Hospital, doctors believe the 13-year-old has a 70 per cent chance of beating the cancer.
Natalina, from Suai, southwest of Dili, arrived in Brisbane on March 20 with lifethreatening hydrocephalus, or fluid on the brain. A large, intracranial germ cell tumour was stopping fluid from draining out of her brain and had destroyed her pituitary gland, responsible for hormone control.
RCH cancer specialist Tim Hassall said Natalina weighed just 16kg at the time, not much more than the average toddler. 'She would have died within a day or so if she hadn't arrived when she did,' Dr Hassall said. Neurosurgeon Martin Wood performed emergency surgery on Natalina within hours of her arrival, insertinga shunt to drain the fluid from her brain.
Since then, chemotherapy has shrunk the tumour to about the size of a pea. 'She's done very, very well,' Dr Hassall said. 'Without promising anything, we've got a good chance of curing her. But she'll need to be on hormone replacement tablets for the rest of her life: treatment for Natalina's condition is unavailable in East Timor.
But ROMAC stepped in, flying the teenager and her elder sister Filomena De Fatima, 26, to Brisbane. Ms De Fatima left her son Bianco, 4, in East Timor, with husband, Angelo, so she could accompany Natalina to Brisbane for her treatment.
Dr Hassall said Natalina still required two more months of chemotherapy and then six weeks of radiation treatment before being allowed home to East Timor.
'She'll be home before Christmas,' he said. Dr Hassall praised the dozens of hospital workers and ROMAC volunteers had worked together to get Natalina well.
'She wouldn't be here without their support," he said.
