Spicewood girl battles rare brain tumor as friends and community rally
DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE STAFF
SPICEWOOD — When 15-year-old Katelyn Norton began complaining of a headache, based on the girl’s medical history, her mother, Debbie, knew this might not be an ordinary teen complaint. So the mom scheduled a checkup.
The diagnosis wasn’t the type any parent wants to hear, but for Katelyn and her parents, this was a second dose of bad news.
“The (doctors) saw regrowth in the site of the original tumors,” said family friend Julie Oakley. The regrowth was of a rare brain tumor called schwannoma tumor. The Faith Academy student underwent brain surgery in 2011 to remove the tumor. At the time, surgeons believed they had removed the disease. Followup exams seemed to show the same thing.
Even with the tumor removed, Norton suffered paralysis on the right side of her face. She also lost hearing in one ear. Before this reoccurrence of the disease, the family had been looking into surgery to help Katelyn’s facial paralysis and hearing loss.
“This latest diagnosis was just devastating,” Oakley said. “As you can imagine, the medical bills are really going to start mounting again.”
The family is in Iowa (as of April 11) meeting with a surgeon who specializes in removing this type of tumor from the specific area of the brain. Even before Katelyn undergoes two, possibly three, more surgeries for the tumor, the Nortons had to come up with $7,000 of their own to cover initial medical expenses. This is with health insurance, Oakley pointed out.
Realizing what her friends were about to face, Oakley initiated an online fundraising effort through www.youcaring.com. People can go to the website and donate funds for the family.
“The response has been great,” Oakley said. “They needed $7,000 for the first part of the medical costs, and as of (April 11), we had raised a little over $7,000. But this is only the beginning. They’re going to need a lot of support and help as Katelyn undergoes the surgeries and recoveries.”
Oakley said Katelyn’s mother expressed concerns about the rising medical costs and how it will be such a large weight on the family.
“Financially, any middle-class family is going to have trouble when something like this happens,” Oakley said. “I just told her that’s the last thing you should be thinking about. I told her she should go take care of Katelyn and let us help you.”
People can help the Nortons by going to the above website and typing in Katelyn Norton’s name in the search field to donate.
daniel@thepicayune.com