Tragedy often seems to have a twisted sense of humor, and irony is plainly one of its preferred flavors of comedy. In something that can best be described as tragic, a tumor confused with pregnancy led to 22 year old’s death. The young woman’s parents were left trying to spread awareness of the disease.
Demi Wright, a 22 year old British makeup artist working for Lancôme died late last month after her doctors misdiagnosed a five inch tumor as a pregnancy. The doctors weren’t really to blame for the young woman’s death, as the type of rumor that she had is known to trick diagnosis procedures.
Suffering from an aggressive form of cancer named adenocarcinoma, the 22 year old was admitted to a hospital last November. She came in with back pains and discomfort in her side, with her blood tests showing high levels of a hormone released during pregnancy – human chorionic gonadotropin.
She was taken to the maternity ward, and by the time the doctors realized that the hormone was coming from a five inch tumor in her liver, it was too late to do anything about it – the cancer was in its final stage. The young woman’s family hoped that they might get a little bit more time with their daughter, but she died on February 23rd.
According to the Oxford Online Pharmacy’s Dr. Helen Webberley, Wright suffered from something called a molar pregnancy. It happens when something else mimics the symptoms of a pregnancy, including growth in the womb and the release of associated hormones. This is what she said about the situation:
It is only when the patient comes for their 12-week scan that a molar pregnancy is detected. The cells need to be removed and most women can expect a full recovery. However, close follow-up is needed because there is a small chance of developing a type of cancer, as appears to be the case with this patient.
The unfortunate young woman had been diagnosed with a tumor in the year 2000, but it turned out to be benign. She kept going in for regular check-ups until she turned 16. In relatively recent times, she had joined a team of makeup artists at Lancôme, which turned out to be her final endeavor.
Demi’s family was there for the entire ordeal, so they know that the doctors weren’t responsible for their daughter’s tragic end. However, as grieving parent of a young woman taken too soon away from them, they are doing the best they can to spread awareness about adenocarcinoma.
The family has even set up a fundraising page in her honor, the proceeds of which will go to the Cancer Research UK foundation.
Image source: Wikimedia
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