Alpine resident Carlette Anderson is advocating for her daughter Tamara Newton,46, through a GoFundMe fundraiser, after she suffered a brain hemorrhage, potentially caused by a tumor. Newton is paralyzed on her left side, cannot walk, and requires full time care.
“She will need surgery or/and other medication interventions in a few weeks once the doctors determine the size of the suspected tumor. She has a long road of recovery and life-adjustments ahead of her and could use all the prayers and support she can get from her community,” wrote her sister Kimberly Klootwyk on the GoFundMe page which she initiated.
Anderson said her daughter moved from Costa Rica to the San Francisco Bay area during the pandemic to be closer to family. In Costa Rica, Newton owned an ecological farm and Three Seeds Eco-Education camp in Costa Rica.
Anderson said they still do not know what kind of tumor her daughter has as they have not been able to do a biopsy because of the swelling from the hemorrhage.
“Tomorrow they are going to do another MRI to see if they can do a biopsy,” she said. “To see if the tumor is malignant or benign, and to see if they can operate on her. Some tumors are inoperable. The tumor is on the right-hand side of her brain, about three centimeters down, and the size of a golf ball.”
Anderson said it all began when her daughter started having tremors back in November of 2023, so she made an appointment with her primary care doctor. It took her a month to get an appointment, so by the time she saw the doctor to get a referral to a neurologist, Anderson said her daughter’s tremors were happening two to three times a day where her arms and legs would get weak, shake, and then stop.
“She finally got to see the neurologist two months later,” she said. “She was leaving to move from New Jersey to California with her son. With all that stress, she thought when she got to California, she would get a new neurologist. The day after Christmas, she was on her first day at her new job, and when she went to get into her van, her leg and her arm went dead. Bam! She went to the emergency room, they did an MRI, and found the brain tumor and hemorrhage.”
Anderson said she flew up there immediately.
“Most of our family is up in that area. That is why she wanted to move there. Her daughter is there, her granddaughter, so she has a lot of support which is wonderful,” she said. “I cannot move her. She needs someone to move her. Take her from the bed to the wheelchair, to the bathroom. She is totally disabled.”
Andersons said some of the movement in her daughter’s arm came back about a week ago. She believes it is due to the medications that they gave her to reduce the hemorrhaging and swelling in the brain.
“It is amazing,” she said. “I’m thinking if the swelling continues to go down, she may get movement back in her leg. But I do not know. We are all hoping and praying once this pressure gets off that is pushing on, she will get her leg back.” Anderson said Tamara has always been an extremely active person.
“She was very active in her community in New Jersey. She had a landscaping and design business. She held chocolate making classes,” she said. “She has this eco farm in Costa Rica in the middle of a rain forest. She has had that farm for nearly 20 years. Groups would come to her farm and learn different things about sugar cane and chocolate and showed them the process entire of making chocolate brownies from Cocoa beans. The business part of her farm ended during COVID because there were no more tourists. That is when she moved to New Jersey.”
Anderson said so far, they have raised nearly half of the fundraising goal to help Tamara get through living and medical recovery expenses. For more information, visit www.gofundme. com/f/8ab5x7-medical-andrecovery- expenses.
