Terrifying find in Aussie pub worker's brain after unsettling 'joke' during shift

Rosanna Scarcella, 40, fell down the stairs after struggling to lift her right leg.

Waitress Rosanna Scarcella smiles at the camera with apron that reads 'Essendon Hotel' on it (left) and Rosanna with her sisters and mum with a birthday cake in front of them (right).
Waitress Rosanna Scarcella walked 20,000 steps a day working in the family business but her sister Joanne (right) said she is now unable to walk. Source: Supplied

A waitress who regularly clocked 20,000 steps a day now doesn't know if she'll ever walk again after a freakish moment during a shift led to a doctor's visit and a terrifying discovery in her brain.

Last month Rosanna Scarcella, 40, was working a busy shift at her family's pub in Essendon in Melbourne's north when she started to struggle to lift her right leg properly.

"It was after a busy weekend at work... and she was complaining about her right leg lagging," her sister Joanne Scarcella told Yahoo News. "They were all making a joke and having fun about it but she then got into a bit of pain and it became more serious...

"Then the next day, she fell down the stairs at home."

After visiting the doctor, who promptly instructed her to go to the emergency department, Rosanna underwent tests and scans revealed she had a three-centimetre brain tumour in her brain which was "causing the movement issues".

Within days, she underwent surgery to get the tumour removed. But despite the surgeons removing the mass, Rosanna woke up unable to move her right foot.

The family are now awaiting biopsy results to learn if the mass was malignant or not, and Rosanna has been desperately clinging to hope that physiotherapy will help regain sensation in her foot. Currently, it is unknown if she will ever walk again.

"The doctors are not specifying anything. The brain is so unique to every patient, I guess they don't want to confirm anything... we're just sitting ducks, praying and working with her," Joanne said.

Rosanna Scarcella lies in hospital bed with a rabbit toy under her arm and wires coming out of her nose (left) and a close up of her head where the large incision was made during surgery (right).
Rosanna is now receiving daily physiotherapy to try get movement back in her foot after brain surgery. Source: Supplied

Rosanna confessed to her sister this week she wished she'd done something sooner about the frequent headaches she'd experienced over the years.

"She said, 'You know, I wish I had got checked and not just popped a Panadol and kept on trotting along'," her sister told Yahoo. It is not clear if the headaches were related to the tumour.

Since the mass was discovered, the family have created a GoFundMe page in the hope money can be raised to "ease the financial burden" off Rosanna as it is now unclear when, or even if, she can return to work.

At the time of writing, the fundraiser has raised nearly $30,000 – more than three times its goal of $8,000.

"Rosanna lived an independent, simple, routine life, mainly working for the family business, babysitting her goddaughter and hanging out with close friends... she is so overwhelmed," Joanne said.

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