A mum has told of the horrifying moment she found her nine-year-old daughter 'lifeless' on the bathroom floor.
Millie Moore collapsed just moments after she complained of a headache. Mum Sarah, of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, rushed her to hospital and learned Millie had suffered a significant bleed on the brain, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Tests revealed the bleed had been caused by an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a tangle of blood vessels that connects arteries and veins in the brain. Millie, now 10, is now making a recovery but her mother wants to raise awareness of the condition.
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Sarah told the Echo: "It was the last day of school before the summer holidays and Millie had been okay all day.
"At about 7pm, she started complaining of a headache so she ended up just putting a wet cloth on her head and my husband gave her some Calpol. Almost immediately after having the Calpol she was hysterically crying to the point it just didn’t sound right.
"She vomited quite severely in the kitchen so I moved her down to the toilet. She was acting quite erratically in her behaviour. She started screaming 'I’m sorry' and I was like 'Why are you apologising? We all get sick at times.' Her behaviour turned a bit and it was all quite bizarre."
She went upstairs to call an ambulance but when she returned, she found Millie unresponsive. After being told it would be more than an hour for an ambulance to arrive, Sarah drove her to the Countess of Chester hospital.
Sarah said: "One of the nurses made a lot of calls to specialists and people were turning up in jeans and jumpers from home so at that point we knew it was really serious. She was put in an induced coma and transferred to Alder Hey for emergency surgery.
"We got told if she didn’t have the surgery she’d die because the pressure in her brain was too much. They fitted a drain into her brain to release the pressure and drain off the blood but the following morning they told us the pressure hadn’t come down to where it needed to be."
After doctors performed a craniotomy on Millie, she was kept in an induced coma for several days. Sarah said: "She started coming around and was very confused. She was experiencing hallucinations and telling us she was drowning in water even though she was in a comfortable hospital bed. It was all very distressing."
Millie was moved to a ward and allowed home after 13 days, after celebrating her tenth birthday in hospital. Her mum says she is now making an 'unbelievable' recovery following her ordeal on July 21.
She said: “Its bizarre because when she went for the craniotomy, we were told it was a really high risk operation and that she might not get through it. For two days I convinced myself I was going to lose her but the operation went well.
"They told us she could have brain damage and might not be the person she was beforehand but she’s actually the same. At the moment we’re having to tell her to rest because its only been five weeks and they say its a long term recovery of six months before she’s fully back to normal, but she’s bouncing around everywhere at the moment like she was before.”
Now Sarah wants to use her ordeal to raise awareness of the condition to other families. She said: "There were absolutely no warning signs before it - it was almost just like the click of a finger. They think its something she must have had since birth.
"She’s my only biological child so she’s very precious to me and I do feel quite traumatised by it all. They say it tends to happen to people between the ages of 20 and 40 so she’s quite young to have it.
"I'd like to find someone who has also experienced it at such a young age to see how they've been going forward because I guess my only concern at the moment is recurrence because it can redevelop. The doctor told us she’s actually in a much safer position now than before it happened because she’ll be getting regularly monitored which does bring some reassurance.
Describing her daughter, Sarah said: "She’s so athletic and loves her dancing. She can never sit still and she’s quite feisty and determined, which I think has probably helped her through it. She’s quite cheeky but also very loving and caring. She’s just a lovely girl who’s full of life."
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