Dancer, 16, Went to the ER for a Headache. A ‘Low-Risk’ Surgery Left Her Paralyzed, But Now She’s Ready to Perform Again

NEED TO KNOW

• Danielle Andersen, a dancer from London, learned she had a brain tumor after dealing with a persistent headache
• Complications during surgery left her paralyzed on her left side, requiring months of intense rehabilitation
• Now 17, she is dancing again and hopes to return to performing arts college after her recovery journey

A teenager was left paralyzed and forced to drop out of performing arts school after complications from “low-risk” brain tumor surgery.

Danielle Andersen — a student and dancer from London — was 16 when she started suffering from a persistent headache in July 2025.

“I thought it must be dehydration from the heatwave, and everyone else told me that,” she told Southwest News Service. “But no matter how much water I drank, the headache wouldn’t go. I was going to the toilet constantly because I was drinking and drinking.”

“I was in pure agony,” she continued. “A lot of people didn’t believe how bad it was. I kept thinking, am I making this worse than it is?”

After five days with no relief, Andersen decided to go to the emergency room. “My gut feeling was that it wasn’t just a dehydration headache though, and I was right,” she said.

Doctors initially suspected the teen had a migraine, but a CT scan later revealed that she had a benign brain tumor called a dermoid cyst, which had likely been growing since birth.

Andersen required surgery, but as a longtime dancer who had just secured a spot at a London performing arts college, she decided to delay her treatment so she could begin her first semester.

“I didn’t want to go in as the person with a brain tumour,” she admitted. “I just wanted people to know me.”

Andersen completed her first semester of classes before undergoing a craniotomy in December 2025. Doctors told her family that she would experience a “bit of weakness” in the following days. But it turned out to be worse.

Four days after surgery, Andersen was completely paralyzed on the left side of her body. Her right eye was shut, her head dropped to one side, and she could not move her arm, leg or hand. An MRI revealed that during the procedure, three blood vessels had been cut, causing her to suffer a stroke.

Doctors told her family they didn’t know whether she would ever dance again, and she was unlikely to regain full use of her left hand.

“We had been told she’d be home by the 22nd of December,” her father, Justin, told the outlet. “We didn’t leave the hospital until February 19.”

“We weren’t going to accept that her dreams and her life had gone down the toilet,” he added.

With the support of her family, Andersen began an intense recovery journey with a private neurological physical therapist. Her body had to rebuild the neural pathways from her brain to the left side of her body.

“What was meant to be low-risk went terribly wrong,” Andersen wrote on a GoFundMe page. “Instead of being back at college, I spent 10 weeks in hospital relearning how to sit up, stand, use my arm and take my first steps again. It was scary, frustrating and heartbreaking — going from dancing every day to needing help just to move.”

Six months of recovery later, she has started running, jumping and dancing again. Although she dropped out of school and requires six hours of rehabilitation a day, Andersen, now 17, is hoping to return to the performing arts college in the fall.

“My physio is just turning into dancing again,” she told SWNS. “Before, people had to move my arm because I couldn’t move it. Now I’m dancing.”