Doctors Discover Mass on Young Pregnant Mother’s Brain After She Complained of Strange Vision Problems

Conservative News DailyMarch 30, 2025

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Abbie Keet, a 24-year-old woman from Bognor Regis, England, experienced sudden bouts of blindness during her pregnancy, which worsened after she gave birth in August 2023. Initially suspected to have a condition called papilledema due to optic nerve swelling, further tests revealed she had a craniopharyngioma, a rare non-cancerous brain tumor. Diagnosed shortly after giving birth, Keet faced the anxiety of needing surgery.

In February 2024, she underwent surgery to remove moast of the tumor, which was pressing against her optic nerve and pituitary gland. Sadly, some of the tumor had to be left intact, leading to hormonal issues and reliance on hormone replacement therapy as her pituitary gland was damaged during the operation. Following the surgery, she had to return to the hospital multiple times due to complications.

Keet’s ordeal has significantly impacted her family life,especially as she struggled to care for her newborn son during her recovery. Craniopharyngiomas are rare, affecting only 1-3% of all brain tumor cases, with symptoms including headaches, vision problems, and potential hormonal imbalances.

A 24-year-old woman who was experiencing brief bouts of blindness every five minutes visited the doctor and discovered she had a brain tumor.

Abbie Keet, a resident of Bognor Regis, England, started having trouble with her eyes while pregnant with her first son, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported.

Her condition worsened after giving birth in August 2023.

“I didn’t really have a good pregnancy from the start, but in my second trimester, my sickness was awful,” Keet said. “In my third trimester, my eyes started to go funny — my vision was going blurry.”

“I gave birth to my son, and my eyes got worse. I was going blind for 30 seconds at a time every five minutes,” she said.

Her opticians said she likely had papilledema, a swelling of the optic nerve, according to Harvard Health Publishing.

But biopsy tests at Chichester Hospital in Sussex would tell a very different story.

“The hospital called me within a few hours, they did more tests on me, and sent me to the emergency floor,” Keet said. “I had some blood tests and a CT scan. The doctor came back into the room and told me I had a large mass on the brain.”

Doctors diagnosed Keet with craniopharyngioma, a rare non-cancerous growth that forms near the brain’s pituitary gland, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Hi #medtwitter! Today #Scientissimum would like to show you a sagittal view of the #brain, specifically – the pituitary gland. The #pituitarygland, in humans, is oval in shape and is a pea-sized gland that sits in a protective bony enclosure called the sella turcica. It is… pic.twitter.com/wI7ZNH653h

— Scientissimum (@scientissimum) April 6, 2023

“When we got the news, it was a sigh of relief that it wasn’t cancerous, but I had a whole new worry about the surgery that I was preparing for,” she said.

The doctors also said the pregnancy was unrelated to the tumor.

In February 2024, one month after she was diagnosed, Keet underwent surgery.

But the long road had just begun.

While doctors were able to remove most of the growth, they couldn’t get all of it.

“My tumor was pushing on my optical nerve, which was linked to my pituitary gland, so they had to leave the tiniest amount, but they got the most out that they could,” Keet said.

“I was in there for eight hours, my pituitary gland died in the process, so I am on hormone replacement, and I could go through early menopause because of it,” she added.

The pituitary gland, sometimes referred to as the body’s “master gland,” is about the size of a pea and is located at the base of the brain, in line with the top of the nose, according to HealthDirect.com.

It essentially tells the other glands what to do.

Keet returned to the hospital multiple times after to have her surgical wound treated, because it wasn’t properly healing.

I was diagnosed with a brain tumour after getting blurry vision while I was pregnant https://t.co/8xWts0GsS5

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) March 16, 2025

“I then underwent more surgery to have my bone flap removed due to the infection. In November 2024, I then had my last surgery, which was having my metal plate fitted,” Keet said.

“I now have to go for a regular scan due to them not being able to remove all of the tumor because of the area the tumor was in,” she said.

The ordeal, of course, has taken its toll on her family.

“I missed my son’s first year of growing up due to spending a lot of that time in and out of hospitals. My partner was left to care for me while taking care of our son,” Keet said. “My mother-in-law had to move in with us because I couldn’t even be alone with him, as I could go blind at any moment.”

According to Dr. Aaron Cohen-Gadol, common symptoms of craniopharyngioma include headaches, vomiting, and vision problems.

Other symptoms might include confusion, extreme thirst and urination, feeling tired, loss of appetite, weight changes, and problems with thinking or learning.

The rare condition affects fewer than 2 people per million each year, accounting for 1 percent to 3 percent of all brain tumors, according to Cohen-Gadol.