Teenager's Toothache Was a Sign of Aggressive Blood Cancer That Doctors Say Would've Killed Him in Weeks

“If he hadn’t come in he would have only had a few weeks to live,” said 19-year-old Ethan Harrison’s mother

NEED TO KNOW

• Ethan Harrison’s toothache led to a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia, a fast-progressing blood cancer
• Doctors said the 19-year-old would have had only weeks to live without immediate hospital treatment
• His recovery will take about a year with multiple rounds of chemotherapy and extended hospital stays

A teenager's toothache turned out to be a sign of a life-threatening blood cancer that doctors said would have killed him in a few weeks.

Ethan Harrison — a 19-year-old from Derbyshire, England — started experiencing a toothache that he believed was caused by his wisdom teeth. He booked a dental appointment in May, suspecting it was an infection and he would simply need to get them removed.

“He had been suffering with a toothache for the past month before we went to the dentist,” his mother, Roxy Bond, told Southwest News Service. “He'd been having a few different symptoms, like shortness of breath, a fever and a swollen lymph node the size of a golf ball on the left side of his neck.”

During Harrison's appointment, the dentist immediately noticed the swollen lymph node and urged him to visit his general practitioner as soon as possible.

“We went to the GP, they did a blood test and the results came back 12 hours later,” Bond, 37, recalled. “They said his levels were all over the place and we were told we needed to get to A&E immediately.”

“When the diagnosis came it was very surreal and just very, very unexpected.”

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Harrison was ultimately diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. It's a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that progresses very quickly, according to the Mayo Clinic. It requires immediate treatment because it can spread to other parts of the body. It usually affects older adults.

Doctors told Harrison that he would've died if he hadn't visited the hospital when he did.

“The team at the hospital said if he hadn't come in he would have only had a few weeks to live,” Bond said. “It felt like a story you'd hear about someone else, not your son.”

Harrison has been in the hospital since May 17 and started chemotherapy last week. His cancer is “very curable” but he was told that his recovery will be a “long process.”

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“It could be about a year before Ethan returns to full health, depending on how his body reacts and he'll be in the hospital more than he's home during that time,” his mother told the outlet.

“We're expecting four rounds of chemotherapy,” she continued. “He started the first one last week. He'll be in for a month, being treated twice a day with two different drugs. He's never been in a hospital before and now he's having bone marrow biopsies, PICC lines inserted and constant blood tests.”

Despite the difficult road ahead, Bond praised her son for being strong, admitting that “nothing's phased him” and he's responded with a sense of humor.  

“All he'll say is, ‘What an inconvenience.' We're a very positive family and he's been brilliant,” she said. “I'm so proud of how he's handling it.”

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