Toddler Suffers Back Pain, Doctors Find His Brain Was Too Big For His Skull

A two-year-old toddler, Lenny was diagnosed with a brain condition after he told her mother that his back was sore. Samantha McGee, from Knowsley Village, Merseyside, said that her son Lenny was complaining of lower back pain and started crying while they were coming back home from nursery, reported Liverpoolecho. The mother assumed that the toddler had an accident at the nursery and brushed off his concerns. However, the toddler screamed in pain while playing on the floor one day. The concerned parents rushed to the hospital to get him checked but the doctors said he was fine.

But the toddler kept complaining of back pain, they rushed him to the hospital once more. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with the 2-year-old. Samantha took him to another hospital where further tests were carried out. The mother told Echo, "Lenny was only one at this point and she [the medic] said 'Lenny what's happened?' and he said 'my back hurts, right there and he pointed to the bottom of his back and he showed her exactly where it hurts. She said 'I am not happy he can tell me that aged one, the pain must be really bad for him to know."

The toddler underwent an MRI and after a few days, the parents were called to inform them that Lenny was suffering from a brain condition. He was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation Type I, a rare condition in babies and children. In this condition, the lower part of the back of the brain extends into the spinal canal, and obstructs the flow of fluid, the report said.

The mother said, "Basically his brain is too big for his skull. His brain over-leaked his skull and was starting to stop the fluid from going down his spine and flowing around his brain as it should. His symptoms were lower back pain."

Lenny soon complained of painful headaches and severe pain in the knees. The mother took the toddler to the hospital and he underwent another MRI scan. The doctors told Samantha that Lenny's condition has become worse. She said: "When the baby was waking up, the surgeon walked into the room and said to me 'I have looked at his scan already and it has gotten progressively worse. All the fluid balls that have locked on his spine have burst open and his brain is starting to be pulled down his spine now."

Doctors said that Lenny needs decompression surgery on his brain, they will cut to the back of the head. In the surgery, the surgeon removes a small piece of bone from the base of the skull and may also remove a small piece of bone from the top of the spine. This helps reduce the pressure on the brain and allows the fluid in and around the brain and spinal cord to flow normally, the Echo report said.

The mother added, "Going forward we don't think he will be able to play a contact sport, go on the fair, all that type of stuff. All that is out of order for Lenny now, so it has changed his life in a way because all the stuff that children and boys his age will be doing, he now can't do.

"In a way, it has sort of changed how he is going to live. But he is a happy little soul. He has been amazing and you wouldn't even know. He's been so good. He is so, so brave, he was just unbelievable."