Tradie dad's devastating discovery after hand starts moving on its own
Lloyd Wells is now working to regain his speech and fine motor skills after doctors discovered a tumour the size of a mandarin in his brain.
Earlier this year tradie dad Lloyd Wells had just returned to his southeast Melbourne home after finishing up “a big job” when his right arm and hand suddenly “clenched up and started moving” on its own.
Worried, the 42-year-old roof tiler called his long-time partner Talisa Vaughan, 34, who was also on her way back to the suburban property. “He said ‘something’s wrong, my little fingers just started moving but I wasn’t even doing it’,” she told Yahoo News Australia on Friday.
The bizarre episode lasted roughly a minute, but because he had no other symptoms “whatsoever”, the pair believed he’d pulled a muscle or a muscle was in spasm due to heavy lifting and climbing up ladders.
Two months later in May Lloyd, who is affectionately nicknamed Chubbs, Talisa and their three-year-old son were wrapping up dinner when the dad’s right hand once again started making the same movements, prompting his quick-thinking partner to film the involuntary tick.
“It just came out of nowhere,” Talisa said. “No headaches, no other symptoms, nothing.”
Not wanting to take any chances, the 34-year-old mum pulled Lloyd out of bed and nagged him to get into the car so she could drive him to the doctor.
Scan reveals tumour the size of a mandarin in tradie's brain
The dad was initially told he was having a focal seizure — when brain cells in one part of the brain malfunction — and was handed a referral for a CT scan in the morning. When the results came back less than two hours after the test, they revealed “a massive blur” on Lloyd’s brain.
“We were just not expecting anything like that,” Talisa told Yahoo. The grade 2 Oligodendroglioma brain tumour just above his left ear had probably been slowly growing for years, doctors said, but was now the sign of a mandarin. The average life expectancy for the diagnosis is 12 years.
During a five-hour procedure on August 12, neurosurgeons worked to remove as much of the tumour as possible, however as soon as he woke up it was obvious the tradie had suffered severe side effects.
“We thought coming out of surgery that all we had to be worried about was the right hand side movement and his eyesight, [but] his speech was had been pretty badly affected,” Talisa explained.
The 42-year-old also lost feeling on the right side of his body, his fine motor skills and some memories, requiring full-time assistance.
Aussie dad hoping to undergo drug trial
Now, after months of outpatient speech, occupational and physiotherapy sessions, Lloyd is able to communicate a little but struggles in bigger groups and tires easily. “They call it aphasia, where he understands everything that’s going on, but he can’t find the words to really communicate back,” his partner said.
Tragically the stress of the ordeal also took its toll on Talisa, who has suffered two miscarriages including the loss of a 14-week-old baby girl during this time.
In a bid to push off chemotherapy and radiation amid concerns it could regress his progress, the Aussie couple are turning to a trial drug named Voranigo for help. “He’s been approved for it and that will go for two years,” Talisa said, adding that while it has been authorised for use in Australia, the drug is not government-funded.
“Hopefully in that time Australia will fund it so he can just keep going. If not it’s like $60,000 a year so we won’t be doing it.”
In the meantime, the pair — who co-own their roofing business — are struggling to make ends meet.
“Since May, Lloyd has been unable to work due to the tumour and ongoing risk of seizures,” relatives wrote on a GoFundMe they created to help the family as Lloyd continues his battle. “He also cannot drive, and there is no clear timeline for when he might be able to return to work. Lloyd has always been the life of the party — known for his hard work and as the main income earner for his family.”
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
