9-Month-Old Girl Thriving as She Battles Brain Tumor

A 9-month-old girl is thriving after doctors discovered a tumor covering more than 60 percent of her brain.

Katie Rose was just a few weeks old when doctors found the tumor. “My first reaction was, 'Is she going to live?'” Mary Hayes, Katie’s mom, told InsideEdition.com. “This is my first baby and we've never gone through anything like this and when you hear about something on the brain, you think the worst.”

At 2 months, Katie began chemotherapy, but her parents said that fortunately the side effects weren't as bad as they expected.

Luckily, babies under the age of 6 months have a unique advantage for fighting a glioblastoma.

“Childhood glioblastoma has a very poor prognosis just like adults, it's just this very small group of children in this under 6 months of age that seem to have this very distinct molecular finding and those children have a better prognosis,”  Dr. Amy Smith of the Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children told InsideEdition.com.

She added: “So, biologically those tumors in very young kids, like Katie Rose, are unique.”

Katie still has some treatments to go, but as she gets closer and closer to her first birthday, she is hitting major milestones, just like any other kid.

“She's crawling, pulling up, doing normal baby things,” Hayes said. “She’s very talkative now. She's learning to babble. She's a normal little baby.”

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