3-year-old Filip Stevic underwent emergency surgery in October 2024 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. He鈥檚 now back home and doing well, running and playing with toys again.
News — Filip Stevic is a “happy, goofy kid” who loves trucks, dinosaurs and books, according to his parents, Sunny and Milos, who live in Nottingham, Maryland. But the family’s holiday season was nearly upended when a golf ball-sized tumor was discovered inside Filip’s head.
Just before his third birthday, in September 2024, Filip started gagging on mucus every morning after waking up. “He would feel bad, then take a nap, and would feel fine for the rest of the day,” Sunny Stevic says. He soon developed difficulty in balancing, complained of worsening headaches and his eyes began crossing. After trips to different doctors and an urgent care facility, the family ended up in the emergency department at a local hospital, where a CT scan identified a large tumor inside his brain.
An ambulance rushed Filip to for further treatment. There, he and his family met , director of pediatric neurosurgery, and a team of specialists at the . An MRI confirmed that the tumor, which Cohen called “giant” and was about 6 centimeters in diameter, was located in the cerebellum at the base of his brain, and was causing hydrocephalus, a backup of fluid on the brain. The tumor, along with the hydrocephalus, in turn, was leading to compression on Filip’s brain and brainstem and was creating severe increased pressure in Filip’s brain.
“Dr. Cohen told us this is life-threatening, and that it needed to be removed right away,” Sunny says.
Cohen and his team performed a nine-hour surgery on Filip, leaving no trace of the tumor. A few hours later, Filip was awake, playing and walking again. After the surgery, the mass was diagnosed as a . Although it was a slow-growing, benign tumor, Cohen says, “Its impact would have been devastating if untreated.”
Filip left the hospital after 12 days. He now has regular physical therapy appointments and checkups at Johns Hopkins. Cohen says he doesn’t expect the tumor to return, and he believes Filip will be able to “live a normal life.”
Filip is now back at day care — and the only reminder of the surgery is the scar on the back of his head, which will soon be covered by hair as it grows back. Sunny says Filip is now running and playing with his cars and monster trucks, and is 99% back to himself. “It was a very stressful time,” she says. “But he’s our superhero. He went through this like a champ. We’re proud of him, and we’re going to make sure he is proud of what he overcame.”
Filip’s parents, Sunny and Milos, and his neurosurgeon, Alan Cohen, are available for media interviews.
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