university hospital

Description

A 16-year-old UK boy who was too embarrassed to tell anyone he found a lump in his testicle for eight months has died just two weeks after seeing a doctor. Michael Rushby, from Grangetown in northeast England, finally plucked up the courage to tell his older brother John, 22, when the pair were having a drink together on April 17. "The lump was obvious so I took him straight to A&E [accident and emergency]," John told British newspaper the Evening Gazette. "The doctor said just by looking at it there was an 80 percent chance it was cancer," he said. Michael, who went by the nickname Mikey, went to James Cook University Hospital for tests and was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his abdomen and chest. Doctors told the teen he had a 75 percent chance of beating the disease and he underwent a week of chemotherapy. He was allowed to go home on April 26. Just three days later Mikey was getting ready to go back to hospital for a check-up when he collapsed on the stairs. He died later that day in hospital. John gave a heartbreaking account of events as they unfolded on his Facebook page. On April 19 he pleaded for his brother to stay strong, saying: "Mikey u don't know how much ya hurting me son get through this mate and we can live ya life to the max ya a lot braver than me son love u with all ma heart." John even redecorated his little brother's room days before he returned from hospital, telling his friends and family on April 23 he was: "Wallpaper and paint shopping with Dawn for my bro! Gunna do ya room mint Mikey xx." Mikey's family is now calling for others to speak out about medical issues, no matter how embarrassing. "I think he knew himself he was dying. He was adamant about coming home and he never complained," his mother Patricia said. "I want to say to anyone who ever thinks they might have a problem, go to your mum, go to your dad, go to someone. Mikey could have come to his mum - I wouldn't have been embarrassed." The teen also leaves behind his father Michael and four sisters, Lisa, Jacqueline, Michelle and Leanne. An inquest has been opened into his death.