8-Year-Old UK Boy Complains Of Constipation, Later Diagnosed With Cancer

An eight-year-old boy was diagnosed with cancer after complaining of constipation, as per his mother. Victoria Stainton, a resident of Lincolnshire, rushed her son Harrison to the hospital after he faced difficulty breathing and claimed that initially, doctors thought his symptoms were caused by constipation. However, a chest X-ray revealed that his lungs had filled with fluid, according to a report in Independent.

"Even to my untrained eye I could see something was seriously wrong with my son, as you couldn't define his two lungs on the X-ray," she told a local outlet, as per Independent.

The woman continued, "Within an hour, Harrison was in the theatre having a chest drain inserted and two litres of infected fluid were instantly drained off. In total, eight litres of fluid, including blood, were drained off over three weeks. In November 2022, the single mother was then horrified to learn that he had T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma, a rapidly spreading disease that appeared as a lump in his chest.

"I felt broken and scared, how can this be happening to him as he'd always been a good child - I was afraid of losing him as he is my whole world. I found it hard to process at the beginning. When I was told, I just broke down... it felt very surreal like it wasn't really happening. It still feels unreal at times as it's such a long treatment plan," Ms Stainton added. 

According to the woman, the doctor initially prescribed a laxative after the eight-year-old complained of constipation. However, it did not work for him and that left Ms Stainton concerned. "After a day there was still no improvement and I notice his breathing was shallow and he wasn't able to walk as fast as usual and definitely not as far as usual," she said. Ms Station took him to urgent care after her son appeared to be "very tired and weak and unusually fell asleep waiting to be seen".

"When we got to see the Dr, he referred us to our local hospital, again I mentioned his breathing, but nothing was checked, so off to the local hospital we went and after a 15-minute wait, he was triaged. The triage Nurse was our saviour, she listened to what I said about his breathing, lifted up his top and said 'This is not normal' - He needs a chest X-ray," she told the outlet.

He was transferred to another hospital and began treatment. Harrison underwent three times a week chemotherapy, twice daily blood thinner injections to reduce the risk of blood clots, an eight-litre chest drain, lumbar punctures and a catheter. "The first six months are very intensive and once through that, it goes into maintenance phases for the remainder of the three years and three months," the mother said.

The single mother had to quit her job as a learning assistant to care for her son since she was unable to pay for her son's care, hospital transportation, food and heating costs. "Before Harrison was diagnosed, I was working at his school as a learning assistant, obviously I'm no longer able to work whilst caring for him," she said.