Articles labeled: OMS

Finn McConnell, a 15-month-old baby in Puyallup, Washington, has a very rare form of cancer, Opsoclonus Myoclonus Syndrome, which causes antibodies to mistake the brain for a cancerous tumor creating a situation where one’s “own body [attacks the] brain.”

Last December, Finn’s mother took him to the hospital after he began to act funny.

“We had noticed that he had stopped talking. He was having more difficulty crawling. His balance was off and he would wake up absolutely just screaming, probably five to six times a night,” said mother Theresa McConnell.

She thought he had an ear infection. But the doctor’s diagnosis was much more grim than she ever imagined.

“He says ‘I think he has a tumor in the brain,’” she said. “Of course our hearts just drop. You don’t want to get that kind of news.”

Finn was admitted to the hospital for a series of tests.

An MRI revealed that Finn’s tumor was not in his brain, but in his chest.