Teens dehydration headaches turned out to something much more dangerous

A teen put her headaches down to dehydration during a heatwave, but they were a sign of a ruptured tumor.Danielle Andersen, 17, had the pain for five days before she went to the A&E department in July 2025.A consultant noticed something unusual in her eye tracking, and a CT scan revealed a slow-growing brain tumor called a dermoid cyst, a benign tumor.She underwent a craniotomy to remove the tumor, but was left paralyzed down her left side following the surgery.It was discovered she had a stroke during the operation when three blood vessels were cut.She spent nearly two months in the hospital receiving physiotherapy and now, six months on, can jump and dance again.Danielle, a student from West Wickham, London, said: “I thought it must be dehydration from the heatwave, and everyone else told me that.”“But no matter how much water I drank, the headache wouldn’t go away.I was going to the bathroom constantly because I was drinking and drinking.”“I was in pure agony.”“A lot of people didn’t believe how bad it was.

I kept thinking, am I making this worse than it is?”“My gut feeling was that it wasn’t just a dehydration headache, though, and I was right.”Danielle’s dad, Justin, 55, took her to A&E at Princess Royal University Hospital in Locksbottom on July 17, 2025, where doctors initially suspected a migraine.But a CT scan revealed the dermoid cyst, which doctors said would have been present from birth.Justin, a taxi driver, said: “Nobody sat us down and explained what any of it meant.“We honestly didn’t know the seriousness of it.”“We thought it was over.We thought it was just going to be resolved there.”As Danielle, who has been dancing since age seven, had just secured a place at a London performing arts college, she decided to delay her surgery so she could settle into her first term.She was referred to King’s College Hospital at Denmark Hill, and the family were told the operation carried odds of 100 to one agains...