Mystery benefactor funds medical flight to Spain for toddler's brain surgery

AN ANONYMOUS 'guardian angel' has paid for a Spanish toddler to be flown to Barcelona for a brain tumour operation – the only hope his parents have of saving their son's life.

Oliver, two, has lived in Cancún on México's east coast for the past year, where his dad is a diving instructor, but the family is originally from the province of Málaga.

He was diagnosed with a brain tumour just days ago, and surgery needs to be performed as an emergency – but Mexican health authorities have declined to do so, saying they 'do not have the resources'.

His parents had taken him to hospital on October 13, when he was having difficulty walking, was listless, weak and had lost his appetite.

Various tests and scans concluded Oliver had a tumour in the front part of his brain, as well as hydrocephalus, also known as 'water on the brain', or a build-up of fluid inside his head.

Fluid was drained off after nearly a week had gone by and the child's condition had gone dramatically downhill, to the point where he stopped eating, talking and walking, and was losing his cognitive functions.

This procedure means he is now feeling a lot brighter and has recovered some of his mobility, but according to his uncle, David Romero, the tumour is 'very large' and 'very close to the brain stem', meaning it needs to be removed quickly to stop it spreading.

When public health authorities in México said they could not perform the operation, Oliver's parents decided to go private – but were told the surgery would cost around €100,000, which they were unable to raise.

They contacted the Spanish embassy, which declined to provide a medically-equipped flight to Spain, since the operation was 'covered by the Mexican State health service' in principle, even though they 'did not have the resources' to carry it out in practice.

As a last resort, the parents decided to book a regular flight from Cancún to Madrid, then Oliver could be taken to Barcelona's Sant Joan de Déu children's hospital in a medically-equipped ambulance.

But this would mean they had no access to emergency medical help if Oliver took a turn for the worse in flight.

“Flying to Spain is our last hope to save Oliver's life,” says David, also a diving instructor, in Almuñécar (Granada province).

Since Oliver's diagnosis, the family has received numerous donations – from individuals, theatres, brotherhoods, clubs and societies, and entire villages – to try to fund his specialist medical flight to Barcelona.

But the total has fallen far short of either the €100,000 to operate on Oliver via a private hospital in México, or the €196,400 for the medical airline.

David Romero explains that these aircraft are 'like flying ambulances', designed and equipped with 'everything you would find in an intensive care unit at any hospital', meaning they 'guarantee maximum safety for patients', especially those with very serious illnesses.

He says the flight, which will be leaving very shortly, is 'the fastest and safest way' to get Oliver to the Sant Joan de Déu.

David was contacted by a business tycoon, who 'lives outside of Spain' and 'preferred to remain anonymous', offering to pay the full cost of chartering a medically-equipped flight from Cancún to Barcelona, so he could go straight into paediatric neurosurgery upon arrival.

The mystery benefactor, dubbed by national news reporters as 'a guardian angel', is said to have heard about Oliver's case through the media.

“It's all super-exciting, and shows us that there are still good people in this world,” David says.

He has expressed the family's heartfelt thanks for all the support received, including donations, and especially the help offered by the businessman in question, 'whose generosity could end up saving Oliver's life'.