Kayleigh’s Story

A letter from Kayleigh’s parents:

Dear Friends,

Our oldest daughter Kayleigh was a very active young person. She was barely home between her pastoral internship at Lakemount Worship Centre, working at Wendy’s Restaurant, taking Portland Bible College courses online and hanging out with friends. She was enjoying life to the fullest with a bright future ahead of her.

Then, in November of 2020, her life changed dramatically. She has been in chronic, debilitating head pain and experiencing other neurological symptoms for the last 8 months. After multiple testing and brain scans, our baby girl has been diagnosed with a brain tumor in the 4th ventricle of her brain. The 4th ventricle is what the cerebral/spine fluid flows through and is deep in her brain and surrounded by sensitive brain tissues which control her vital functions, as well, this tumor is right against her brain stem.

Though likely benign, its location poses a serious risk to her health, yet has been considered too dangerous to operate on unless absolutely necessary according to multiple Canadian neurosurgeons.

Therefore, the Canadian doctors plan to ‘wait and see’ until the tumor grows large enough to fully block the cerebral fluid, a fatal condition, causing her to need immediate, life-saving brain surgery. However, they also state that in Canada, the mortality rate is up to 50% for this surgery. Their idea is to try to manage the pain until surgery is absolutely necessary, because they say the surgery may kill her.

The only thing that her medical team has been able to do for her is offer pain management, all of which has failed so far. However – this failing plan of pain management leaves her unable to work, leave the house, barely leave the couch, due to the severity of her pain. We have grave concerns about her quality of life and she has been offered no hope for a recovery and return to normal life.

Through much prayer and God’s leading, we have found a neurosurgeon team at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that believes they can successfully remove the brain tumor and give Kayleigh her life back!! They have advanced technology and long experience in removing these exact brain tumors. We feel very confident in speaking with the neurosurgeon that Kayleigh will be in great hands. They expect a very high chance (95%) of a full recovery without any serious neurological deficits. And there’s only a 0.5% chance of mortality, and the neurosurgeon believes that she will be ok as she is young and strong. This is a miracle compared to the options that we received before this! It will be a Suboccipital Craniotomy, which is a microscopic, endoscopic-assisted surgery with the goal of fully removing the brain tumor without damaging the surrounding brain tissues and functions.
The challenge now is that this surgery is not covered by the Canadian health system. For this reason, the full amount needs to be paid in order to have the brain surgery in Pittsburgh.

The surgery and all the related expenses total $160,000 Canadian. $148,000 of this needs to be paid in full prior to booking the surgery.

Our goal for her surgery is the first week of August.

Thanks for your help!

We have met our goal in providing the financial support needed to ensure Kayleigh receives her life-giving surgery. Please consider donating to the Sarah Tapley Foundation to aid other families like the Duggan’s in their medical journeys.