Fit 15-Year-Old’s Breathlessness Was Not Asthma — Scan Found 8cm Heart Tumour

Jude Hazard, 15, of Silksworth, Sunderland, had always been described as fit and healthy. Earlier this year he started getting breathless doing ordinary things, including walking up the stairs. Doctors first treated it as asthma. Four inhalers did not help.

In July he was taken to A&E at Sunderland Royal Hospital. A scan found a huge 8cm tumour at the back of his heart. He was blue-lighted to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for emergency open-heart surgery. Surgeons removed the mass in a five-hour operation. During the procedure he had a cardiac arrest and flatlined for two minutes before being brought back.

Pathology identified intimal sarcoma, an extremely rare and aggressive vascular cancer that almost always occurs in adults. Family members have said doctors estimated it affects only one or two people in 100 million. Cancerous cells remain in the lining of Jude’s left atrium. His family says there are currently no further treatment options available to him in the UK.

Without additional treatment, they have been told he may have only months to live. They are now looking at possible options in Japan or the United States and have launched a crowdfunder to try to pay for travel and care abroad. Jude has said he just wants things to go back to normal so he can live as he used to. His mother, Katie, has called him a strong, courageous boy.

Intimal sarcoma of the heart is so uncommon that most published series describe adult cases. Complete removal is often impossible once the tumour has grown into the atrial wall, which is why families sometimes look overseas for trials or specialist centres when standard NHS options are exhausted.

For Jude and the people who love him, the next step is uncertain. The tumour that was mistaken for asthma is out. What is left in the lining of his heart is what they are racing to treat.