Family of UGA student diagnosed with brain tumor spending last days near the ocean
The family of a University of Georgia student who was diagnosed with a brain tumor after a spring break trip to Mexico has made the heartbreaking decision to stop her treatment.
Liza Burke, a senior at UGA, was on her last spring break trip in Cabo San Lucas last month when she got a headache and went to lie down. Her boyfriend later found her unconscious.
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She was rushed to a hospital in Mexico where she was diagnosed with a brain bleed initially thought to have been caused by an anterior venous malformation (AVM).
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Burke was flown back to a hospital in Florida, where she was diagnosed with a tumor near her brain stem. The tumor was inoperable because of where it was in her brain.
Burke underwent three weeks of radiation before the family met with doctors and made the decision to stop her treatment because she wasn’t responding to it.
“Tonight we began the hunt for the perfect place by the sea where Liza can enjoy her final days supported by infinite love that surrounds her!” her mother wrote on a GoFundMe set up to help pay for her treatment. “If I could, I would hang onto Liza and follow her. But since I can’t, please continue your prayers for our Sleeping Warrior and for all of us who will never fully fill the void that will be left in her wake.”
Burke is now on hospice care surrounded by her family.
They plan to set up an education fund in Burke’s memory.
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The GoFundMe has raised more than $165,000 to help the family.
