A courageous Lanarkshire teen discovered to have a mind tumour the scale of an orange, wrote her surgeon a notice telling him it wasn’t his fault if she died.
Beth McKenzie, from Blantyre, was taken to see her GP for checks after she started vomiting, having complications and ache in her eyes.
The 16-year-old was rushed to the emergency division on the Royal Hospital for Youngsters in Glasgow the place she was handed into the care of neurosurgeon Roddy O’Kane.
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An eight hour operation was scheduled for June 4 final 12 months, however earlier than it may start, the medic was handed a notice that Beth had written for him.
It learn: “Mr O’Kane, thanks for saving me and treating me like an grownup, telling me the reality. You’re proper, I can take it.
“Thanks for doing every part you'll be able to, and if I didn’t make it ultimately, thanks for making an attempt. It’s not your fault.
"These items simply occur. From Beth.”
Fortunately, the operation was successful and Beth is now learning onerous for her Greater exams - simply 10 months after going underneath the knife.
Mum Clare defined how Beth’s analysis turned the household’s world the other way up and feared that historical past might be repeating itself.
She tiold Lanarkshire Dwell: “My mum had a mind tumour after I was 22.
"It was a secondary most cancers and he or she had it eliminated. However docs couldn’t discover the first and he or she died.
“All of it got here flooding again. I used to be so nervous after they mentioned Beth had a tumour. It was powerful to listen to, however you go on to autopilot. I needed to be robust for Beth."
The following day the household got the excellent news that each one the tumour had been efficiently eliminated - nevertheless, they then needed to endure an anxious watch for the results of the biopsy.
Fortunately it confirmed Beth’s tumour to be a Meningioma and was non-malignant.
The college lady is understandably grateful to the surgeon however admits she did worry she could not survive.
Beth informed us: “I believed I used to be going to die. I wrote a notice to Roddy saying that if I did die on the working desk, it wasn’t his fault. He was making an attempt his greatest.
“I didn’t need him to really feel accountable. Roddy and the workforce saved my life. I really like Roddy, he provides a way of hope and pleasure that you simply simply cling on to.
“After I got here spherical the very first thing I noticed out of 1 was my mum and pa on the backside of my mattress. In a while Roddy and the anaesthetist got here to see me.
“I requested Roddy if I may header a ball but and he mentioned I couldn’t try this.”
The stellar surgeon admits that he nonetheless carries the notice Beth wrote him round in his pockets and hails his ‘fortunate pants’ for serving to make the operation successful.
The dad-of-three mentioned: “Anaesthetic time can take an hour so I get my breakfast earlier than I begin the operation. I'm fairly conventional and superstitious.
“I all the time have a roll, sq. sausage, and a potato scone. I put on the identical fortunate socks and the identical fortunate pants – there’s holes in them however I’m not throwing them out, they’ve completed some cracking operations.
“And I all the time park my automobile in the identical house after I function.
“After I obtained to the theatre, one of many nurses handed me a notice. It actually makes you skip a heartbeat and brings a tear to your eye.
“It's stunning, harmless and honest; the maturity, understanding and openness of it. I nonetheless have it in my pockets.”
He added: “As a guardian, I can empathise. I’d be precisely just like the mother and father of my sufferers as a result of it's a naturally emotional factor.
“My career is the best reward. It's a stunning factor to have the ability to do.
“There's a entire workforce of people that labored with me to get Beth by that journey, anaesthetists, theatre employees, nurses, physios, MRI, radiology, pathology, porters, canteen employees - the record is countless.
“I all the time get the thanks however I can’t do it with out them.”
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