Mile 93

In 2015, when Yahya was just one month shy of his first birthday, his parents noticed a concerning change—the size of his head suddenly looked abnormally large. They took him to his pediatrician, who referred him for a CT scan the following day at Manning Family Children’s. The results of the imaging were unimaginable: Yahya had a brain tumor.

The tumor’s growth was causing swelling in his brain, which is why the size of his head had suddenly grown bigger. Yahya would need to be admitted to the hospital immediately, and he would also need to undergo emergency surgery. Yahya had a brain tumor known as juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma, a cancer that develops from brain cells called astrocytes, which form tissue that surrounds the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Following surgery, the next step in Yahya’s treatment was to undergo chemotherapy to try to shrink the rest of his tumor and halt any further growth. Due to the complex and critical nature of his rare brain tumor, he continued to face a series of additional health challenges. He experienced seizures, and developed severe sleep apnea and needed to get a tracheostomy tube to help him breathe. Yahya has had to undergo extensive occupational, physical and speech therapy.

Yahya received another successful surgery in April to drain a cyst and remove more of his tumor, and he is recovering well! Despite his ongoing health needs, Yahya is doing well. He enjoys spending time with his family, and he is also back at school, making up for the time he had to miss during treatment.