Sophia’s Story

Our daughter Sophia was born with a purple mark on the side of her face. I was told it was simply a strawberry birthmark and nothing to worry about. But the mark originally the size of a golf ball on the left hand side of Sophia's face, trippled in size within a month and covered her entire ear. When she was born the doctors brought her in and said she has a small lump. I thought that that's not a small lump it is massive. I was crying, I had never seen anything like it before. It was ginormous. It was suppose to be a happy day but it wasn't at all. They tried to reassure us it was a strawberry birthmark but it just did not look right. An hour after her birth, Sophia was taken for an ultrasound examination, from which the doctors concluded the mark was a harmless birthmark. We must have seen 20 doctors and they never questioned the original diagnosis they just all said ' its a birthmark' and told us not to worry. As the mark began to grow and bleed. We repeatedly took Sophia back to the hospital and eventually we insisted further investigation and Sophia underwent an MRI scan. Then we had to chase the results for about two or three weeks. Luckily, another doctor at the hospital saw them. The doctor insisted it was a tumor. After awhile waiting on the surgery date the tumor started to blister and it ruptured while we were giving her a bath. We returned to the hospital and demanded that Sophia stay in for observation for the next three days until her appointment. Five days later Sophia had a six hour operation to remove the tumor. She has lost her entire ear. Sophia has now began Chemotherapy and has to continue chemotherapy until further notice.