Davina McCall made a heartbreaking admission four months on from having a benign tumour removed from her brain. Back in November, the presenter underwent a craniotomy after doctors discovered a “very rare” colloid cyst in her brain. The 57-year-old remained in intensive care for three days after the gruelling five-hour surgery, which was a success.
Although everything went well, Davina came to the realisation that she hadn’t prepared her children for if things didn’t go to plan. The former Big Brother host shares Holly, 23, Tilly, 21, and Chester, 18, with her ex-husband and fellow TV presenter Matthew Roberston. She told Hello! Magazine: “It was quite funny… I arrived back from the hospital and my son went, ‘Oh, I didn’t know it was that serious.’
“I was quite pleased in a funny sort of way but then I also thought I hadn’t really done my job properly. I didn’t want to worry him, but I hadn’t prepared him if it hadn’t gone well. I felt like I’d slightly shortchanged him there. But I’m ok, so it’s great news.”
Although she didn’t prepare them, Davina revealed she prepared letters for her three children in case she didn’t survive the surgery or suffered severe brain damage.
Davina’s brain surgeon provided an insight into the complicated operation, comparing the procedure to defusing a bomb. Earlier in the month, Kevin O’Neill spoke out in a joint interview with The Masked Singer star, revealing the serious health threats posed by the cyst.
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Had the surgery not been successful, Davina risked suffering a stroke or being “unable to retain a short-term memory beyond five minutes”. Without detection or if she had opted against removal, there was a one percent chance of her dying suddenly without any prior warning.
O’Neill was the second out of three medical experts Davina consulted regarding the cyst, which was present since her birth. While the first specialist suggested endoscopic surgery, O’Neill recommended that it would be “better to open her head right up” to reduce damage to the healthy brain tissue around it.
In the demanding five-hour operation, the surgeon “opened up her skull from ear to ear and spent five hours removing the 14mm colloid cyst nestled in the third ventricle, straddling the left and right hemispheres of her brain”.
He detailed: “The operation was like a layer cake: scalp, then the skull, then the journey down into the centre of the brain, step by step getting closer to the actual end point of getting the cyst out. Like defusing a bomb, you cut one wire, then down into the next bit, cut that wire, then you get to the last wire, the 14mm cyst.”
Thankfully, the cyst was filled with fluid and was “popped” before the sac was removed, preventing it from refilling and causing further complications.
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