Could a doctor really mistake cancer for mononucleosis? That may have been the case recently when a 6-year-old girl was the victim of a cancer misdiagnosis involving her doctors mistaking symptoms of metastatic neuroblastoma for mono.
How Did Doctors Mistake Cancer for Mononucleosis?
Per KSDK-TV, a few years after she was born, the 6-year-old girl began experiencing fevers on a frequent basis. After running blood tests, her doctors initially diagnosed her with anemia, before saying her condition was viral and then finally settling on a mononucleosis diagnosis in the summer of 2015. Following her mono diagnosis, the girl’s belly began to swell. However, reportedly, her doctors said it was just a product of her mononucleosis.
In the spring of 2016, as the girl’s mother was giving her a bath, she noticed the child’s right side was protruding. An X-ray revealed that abnormalities within the girl’s abdomen were leading to her intestines being pushed down. The results of the X-ray led to the girl undergoing a CT scan. The CT scan showed that she had a tumor the size of a cantaloupe on her adrenal gland. The tumor was diagnosed as metastatic neuroblastoma, which is described in the article as an aggressive form of cancer.
Following the diagnosis, the little girl underwent chemotherapy to shrink the tumor enough for her to undergo surgery. Surgeons removed the tumor. After surgery, the girl had more chemotherapy, had to have two hematomas drained and underwent the first of two planned stem cell treatments. After her first stem cell treatment, the girl suffered heart failure, but she survived and is currently awaiting her second stem cell treatment.
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