A young mom was left bedbound and blind as doctors dismissed her declining health as 'migraines' until a scan revealed she had a brain tumour.
Tia Bradbury from Cheshire, England, had been experiencing migraines and eye 'flickering' for months, which she says doctors dismissed as hemiplegic migraines in December last year.
The 25-year-old, who was also 22-weeks pregnant at the time, noticed the vision in her left eye was declining by the day and became convinced there was more going on.
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She started suffering behavioral and personality changes and was soon getting two to three migraines a week that made her bedbound and sometimes unable to speak.
Tia explained: "I was irritated by everything. I wasn't myself. I didn't find joy in a lot of things."
However, the mom-of-two was 'shocked' when she woke up completely blind in her left eye a few months later, in April 2024.
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Tia explained: "It was quite sudden, it went from flickering to not being able to see a thing. It was so strange, the weirdest feeling. The migraines were horrendous, I couldn't get out of bed."
She dashed to an optician's, thinking she needed glasses, but the optician urged her to go to the hospital as her eye was not responding to the light.
Even then, the prison officer claims she had to 'push' for an MRI scan as doctors continued to shrug off her declining vision as hemiplegic migraines, which can affect eyesight.
The mom added: "I honestly just thought it was a migraine because I was told that for so long by professionals.
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"I wasn't expecting them to say I needed surgery."
But an MRI scan just two weeks later revealed Tia had a 3cm non-cancerous tumor in her brain which was pushing on her left optic nerve, causing the blindness, and was growing fast.
Tia believes she was not 'taken seriously' because she was a 'young girl' that looked like she was exaggerating her pain, but the mother knew her pain was not normal for a migraine.
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The soon-to-be-mom again admitted she was worried as she rushed into a 12-hour surgery the following month, not only because of her existing heart condition after open heart surgery when she was just 11, but about how the baby would react to the anaesthetic.
She said: "It was just really scary, I was more worried that something was going to happen to me and I would have to leave my little girl and my partner behind. That was the worst part."
Thankfully, the procedure was a success and the baby was 'completely fine', while Tia's eyesight soon returned.
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As for the personality changes, doctors said it was either the pain from the tumor or the actual tumor itself.
Her road to recovery was tough, but she got through it with the aid of her strong support network and now is migraine and pain-free.
The young mom is now urging others with similar symptoms to 'trust their gut' and press doctors to take them seriously.
She added: "If I had left it and not continually gone back to the hospital, I probably wouldn't be here now."
A spokesperson for Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "We are unable to comment in detail about individual patients due to confidentiality reasons but would like to emphasise that we take any issues raised regarding a patient’s care very seriously.
"We would encourage Ms Bradbury to get in touch with our Patient Advice and Complaints Team in the first instance so this can be looked into."
Liv Bridge