Teenager faces ‘inner decapitation’ due to rare medical condition

A TEENAGER is facing “inner decapitation” due to a rare brain condition – and could die at any moment.

Allesha Barnfield, 17, has just months to try to save her life in a race to get thousands of pounds in treatment after being diagnosed with a “walking death sentence”.

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She was diagnosed with a variety of conditions including a chiari malformation after developing her first symptoms in 2019.

It can eventually lead to paralysis, or “internal decapitation” when these spinal ligaments are ruptured – in this case 70% of immediate deaths.

This condition causes ligaments in the spine to stretch and tighten and pull the victim’s brain tissue into their spinal cord.

The teenager from Doncaster, Yorkshire, has had to miss her school and work because of the severe symptoms she experiences every day, including headaches, back pain, dizziness, fatigue, memory loss, shortness of breath and shortness of breath. , sensitivity to light and loss of mobility.

And now Allesha is racing against time with just a few months to save money to fund important surgery.

The surgery she needed, which wasn’t on the NHS, cost thousands of pounds, which she didn’t have.

And she has until May to find the money, before the price she was told expires and the price goes up again.

Ms Barnfield said: “Before, my absolute dream was to study law at university, but now it’s a dream to live.”

She continued that she is putting “everything to fight for this surgery” because “without it, I can’t go on living, that’s the way of life”.

“My skull was really deformed and unusually small, which made it difficult for my brain and it put pressure down on my skull, causing a lot of symptoms,” she explained.

Ms Barnfield said it felt like a “death sentence” when she was told, but she had a new sense of hope after learning she could be helped by an overseas specialist.

Now, she is desperate to raise the upfront cost of £19,000 for the surgery, as well as money to pay for accommodation while she recovers in Barcelona, ​​where the institute is based.

The NHS can provide her with some kind of relief for the condition, but this is not a permanent cure for the disease, meaning her symptoms will likely recur.

Write about her GoFundMe . Page, the teen said she “couldn’t fight hard” because she couldn’t have surgery for financial reasons.

She added: “I created it in the hope that I might be lucky enough to have enough money to pay for this surgery.”

Ms. Barnfield hopes she can find the money before May, which is when the price she was quoted as saying expires and after that costs could rise further.

The teenager continued that it meant “absolute world” for surgery, not “waking up every day knowing I was getting worse, but waking up knowing I was free”.