Sudden death of a 7-year-old boy due to undiagnosed glioblastoma

We present a case of sudden death of a 7-year-old boy who at autopsy was found to have an undiagnosed glioblastoma. The boy was asymptomatic until 2 hours before death complaining of a headache and was later found unresponsive in bed. A medicolegal autopsy was notable for a large hemorrhagic mass of the right frontal lobe, which on analysis was diagnostic of a glioblastoma. We feel that this is a unique case for 2 main reasons; high-grade gliomas of the cerebral cortex are rare in the pediatric population, and it is unusual for a large neoplasm to remain asymptomatic until 2 hours prior to death.