Murphy keeps smiling after losing an eye to cancer

Strangers often tell Christine and Bryan that their daughter Murphy has such big, beautiful eyes. What they don’t know is that one of her eyes is not real. “We just want to say, ‘You have no idea!’, but we just smile and say, ‘thank you!’” Murphy before surgery When Murphy was five months old, Christine noticed that her daughter’s right pupil looked a bit iridescent. As a neurological nurse, she knew what to do to test a patient’s eyesight: she covered her daughter’s right eye to no effect. But when she covered the left eye, “Murphy lost her mind.” Christine called her local pediatrician and was seen that afternoon. When a crowd of staff started to gather around Murphy during the exam, Christine knew something was wrong. “I’m a nurse. When there’s an odd diagnosis, everyone wants to observe the patient. I knew from experience that something wasn’t right.” Murphy’s pediatrician scheduled an appointment for them two hours later at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Department of Ophthalmology. Ophthalmologist and surgeon Ankoor Shah, MD, PhD, examined Murphy and asked Christine and Bryan to sit down. They refused. ‘Murphy has cancer.’ Shah explained to Christine and Bryan that their happy, beautiful baby girl had retinoblastoma–a rare cancerous tumor of the eye. “We were crushed,” Christine recalls. “Cancer is never good, but she was just so young. Our world fell apart.” Shah reassured the couple that retinoblastoma is la...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Cancer Our patients’ stories Ankoor Shah Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center MRI retinoblastoma Source Type: news