Reece Hansen is lucky to be alive, and he knows he has the neurology team at the PA Hospital (PAH) to thank for the surgery which will allow him to see his cherished daughter Amirah grow up.
Reece had a colloid cyst in his brain, which up until recently had not bothered him, but this year it began growing, causing headaches and vision issues which eventually led him to the neurology team at the PAH.
Led by neurosurgeon Associate Professor Sarah Olson, the team put Reece under the knife to remove the cyst, which had become life threatening, from his brain.
“Dr Olson said it would have been only a few more days and I would’ve died,” Reece said.
“The two teams there that cared for me, they’re god sends to me to be honest.”
Though colloid cysts are rare brain tumours that are always non-cancerous, Reece’s cyst had grown from 6cm to 9cm prior to his surgery, putting his future at risk.
A diagnosis he said was frightening for his family and forced him to face his worst fears.
“It's definitely a different feeling now it’s over, in massively positive way,” he said.
“It was very scary, obviously for my whole family to deal with. I was terrified of not waking up to see my daughter or being there for my daughter.”
Reece would have three surgeries in two weeks under the care of the PAH, with two to remove all his cyst and one to remove a blood clot in a ventricle in his brain which is where colloid cysts develop.
He is currently resting at home before he hopes to return to work in martial arts training and in security training security dogs, as well as getting back to his daily activities with his extended family and of course five-year-old Amirah.
The young father who is currently writing a film script and who dreams of one day being involved in an action movie, believes the cyst may have begun to take root in his brain eight years earlier after suffering a head knock while at ‘schoolies’ celebrations on the Gold Coast.
“About a week later, I had some weird headaches and vision problems, and got rushed to the Logan Hospital. They did a CT scan, and they discovered the colloid tumour,” Reece said.
“They told us to go to the PA then and they confirmed it. I was there for about a week and a half.”
“About a year ago it started, I don’t know when it started growing but I started getting really bad migraine attacks, vision issues and I had a lot of head pressure. To be honest I didn’t really expect it to be that because we were always told that it wouldn’t give me any grief or any trouble at all.
“I got a scan done through the PA and they rang me up, Dr Tim Williamson one of the neurosurgeons, he’s a really cool guy, he rang and told me I had to go back in to the PA and go on the surgery table, it was pretty full on.”
Reece said he and his family will be forever grateful to everyone involved in his care.
“Everyone at the PA, but especially the two teams in neurology, they’re just great people.
“It’s such a gift they’ve given me and I’m very thankful to them all.”
To help more patients like Reece chase their dreams and get to see their children grow up you can choose the PA as your place to give here.
