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Elmhurst Teen Singing Again After Mt. Sinai Doctors Remove Spinal Tumor

By Katie Honan | February 14, 2017 4:50pm
 Galahad Abella, 17, had a tumor removed from near his spine earlier this year through minimally-invasive surgery at Mt. Sinai. The accomplished singer hopes to study music or science when he attends college.
Galahad Abella, 17, had a tumor removed from near his spine earlier this year through minimally-invasive surgery at Mt. Sinai. The accomplished singer hopes to study music or science when he attends college.
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DNAinfo/Katie Honan

ELMHURST — Galahad Abella was settling into his school break last year when he woke up the day after Christmas with double vision. 

The junior and star singer at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts thought it could have been a simple side effect of not wearing his glasses. His mom and stepdad thought he spent too much time on his phone.

But when the double vision wouldn't go away, he went to a local doctor, who recommended an eye specialist in Manhattan. 

It was there, just three days into the new year and after six hours of testing, that doctors discovered a tumor had grown between his brain and his spine.

"I wasn't in pain. I didn't have the feeling of being in pain," Abella, 17, said. 

From the eye specialist he went to Mt. Sinai Beth Israel, where he met with Dr. Costas Hadjipanayis, the chair of the department of neurosurgery, and Dr. Anthony Del Signore, director of rhinology and endoscopic skull base surgery at the hospital. 

Just hours after confirming the chordoma near his spine on Jan. 6, Abella went in for an hours-long biopsy that would prepare doctors for surgery. 

That kind of tumor in a patient as young as Abella is rare, the doctors said — and could have resulted in more serious damage if he hadn't caught it as soon as he did.

"It was a fortuitous start of his symptoms," Del Signore told DNAinfo New York. "That kicked him into getting evaluation."

On Friday the 13th, he went under for his nearly 10 hour surgery. Abella was calm throughout it all, he said.

"I was thinking, 'there's something in my head,'" he said. "I just trusted the doctors."

His mom, Maria Heidarpoor, was not as calm — but stayed strong for her oldest son, she said. 

"He told me, 'Mom, calm down. I'm not scared, don't be scared," she said.

Five years ago, doctors would have had to cut into the skull to remove the tumor, but the new technology used at Mt. Sinai Beth Israel removed it using small cameras and tools inserted through the nose. 

"That area right there typically in the past was accessed by neurosurgery alone, through large incisions over the head," Del Signore said. It usually meant staying in the hospital for weeks with serious incision pain. 

But Abella was out 24 hours after his surgery, back home in Elmhurst with his family, including his sister Alex, 13, and brother Kiyan, 1. 

He returned to school earlier this month.

He'll have to undergo nine weeks of proton therapy, which helps stop further growth of the tumor. But it's just a small inconvenience to him, as he is now continuing with his choral groups and looking at colleges.

Abella either wants to study music or science, eyeing New York University, Ithaca and Syracuse as his dream schools. He may even pursue researching tumors, developing the medicines that could prevent or heal them, he said.

But for now, "I'm enjoying singing too much."

His mom said she just wants her son to pursue his dream.

"We're so blessed we found this in the early stage with good doctors around here," she said.