A PARAMEDIC had to rush his own daughter to hospital in an ambulance after she fell ill with a deadly brain tumour.
Michael Kidd’s daughter, Aoife, now aged five, was diagnosed with high grade glioma when she was just 16 months old.
Since then, she has undergone surgery, had a total of 18 months of chemotherapy and undergone various other invasive procedures.
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The youngster is now part of a clinical trial at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and since starting the trial drug, the tumour has remained stable.
Aoife was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2015 on February 19. High grade glioma represents 10 per cent of all child brain tumours.
Aoife during treatment
Mr Kidd, 37, of Monkton, Ayrshire, said: “She was a normal fit and healthy girl and she was down at her child minder’s when she took unwell. At the time, I wasn’t sure what had happened and thought she might have fallen and bumped her head, or maybe collapsed.
"I was on my day shift, and I had a few missed calls on my phone from Aoife’s childminder to see if I could come down in the ambulance to get her.
“Initially, when I saw her, she didn’t look well but I never thought for a second about what was to unfold. Myself and Caroline Hodge, my crewmate for the past seven years, took her to Crosshouse Hospital where she had a scan – that’s when we found out she had a brain tumour and the tumour had caused an intra-ventricular bleed.”
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Aoife was transferred to Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow where she had surgery to have the majority of the tumour removed. A small amount, however, was not able to be taken away, as it was too close to a blood vessel.
This is all happened while Michael’s partner, Evelyn, was pregnant with the couple’s second child, Eilidh, now aged three.
Mr Kidd added: “We knew something wasn’t right but never in a million years would have thought that’s what it was. We thought it might just be a concussion, but never a brain tumour. It was the worst day of my life, without a doubt.”
Aoife had a 12 hour operation to have the most of the brain tumour removed. It was then examined in the lab and the family was told it was cancerous and had to start preparing her for chemotherapy.
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Mr Kidd said: “The tumour has been stable since starting the trial drug.This is definitely good news – as long as it’s not growing, and there are no bad side effects, we are happy.
She does not really understand what is going on – the surgery has affected and delayed her development. I think because she has been living with it for most of her life, she thinks it is just normal to be in hospital all the time.”
Mr Kidd s now aiming to raise £10,000 for a sensory and interactive space at Aoife’s’s primary school in Monkton.
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