PERHAM, Minn. — Charlie Graten has a new friend named Kayla that no one likes. Everyone wishes she would just go away.

Charlie, who has autism, turns 11 on Saturday, Sept. 6. A few weeks before his birthday, he experienced headaches, vomiting and double vision.

A visit to his primary doctor led to a referral to a neurologist and then to Sanford Children’s Hospital in Fargo, as a mass was found on his brain.

“He named it Kayla,” his mom, Megan Tweeton, explained. “So we don't call it a tumor; we call it Kayla because that's what Charlie asked us to do.”

Charlie is the son of Megan and Justin Tweeton of Perham and Tom and Megan Graten of Frazee.

Megan Tweeton said the tumor is in the center of his brain. It blocked the spinal cord drainage, which built up pressure in her son’s head, cau

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