Real Life Stories: My 4-year-old daughter had a hemorrhagic stroke
- Diana Campbell
- Jun 19, 2024
- 5 min read
2nd November 2019 was a normal Saturday morning in our household. I was cooking breakfast and my husband Josh and kids Aubrey (4) and Mason were waiting to eat. We sat down to eat and Aubrey stood up on her chair and let out a scream like I had never heard before and grabbed her left ear. She screamed my ear hurts!!!!
I had her go rest a bit to see if it went away. Within 5 minutes she was vomiting and wanting to fall asleep. I decided it was time to take her to the Children’s Hospital walk-in clinic to rule out an ear infection. Luckily the walk-in clinic is less than 2 minutes from our house.
By the time we got there, Aubrey was still vomiting and then falling asleep over and over. They called us back and did all the basic flu and strep tests.
They checked her ears and everything was good. She was sleeping the whole time they did these which I found so odd because generally, she is a bear to hold down while they administer the tests.
The doctor asked us a bunch of other questions and we just couldn’t quite pinpoint what was going on. He stated she had to stand up and drink some water before he would feel comfortable sending her home.
It took us what felt like forever to get her up and on her feet. She was wobbly and what I call just staring straight through you.
She was up but she wasn’t aware of what was going on. I held the cup up to her mouth and the water just dribbled right back out. The doctor thank god decided to send us to the main Children’s Hospital via ambulance just to be on the safe side.
We got to the emergency room and at this time we were panicked. We still would have never expected the results we were going to get. We still thought maybe food poisoning or maybe her Halloween candy was bad.
They decided to do a CT scan of her brain. I had my husband go and I was going to call my mom to tell her what was going on. My husband texted me while I was calling my mom and said they were having trouble getting her earrings out (child-proof screw-back earrings). I went back in and found an employee to take me to where they were. By the time I got down there, they had gotten the earrings out and were doing the scan. I saw the picture pop up on the screen as she was finishing up and I remember seeing a large white spot on the picture.
I had no idea what I was looking at but I knew it wasn’t supposed to look like that. I made eye contact with my husband and we both knew immediately that this was more than an earache or food poisoning.
We headed back to her room and I saw the nurse and pleaded that there was something on the scan that wasn’t supposed to be there. She very nicely tried to calm us down but within seconds there were so many people in her room and rushing around. Next thing I know they are rushing her out and we are left in an empty room with the doctor.
“Your daughter has something in her brain. We are going to take her to sedate her and she will need to have brain surgery to remove it”
From this point forward everything was such a blur.
We had so many terms and diagnoses thrown at us we weren’t sure what was happening. We had to see our daughter fully sedated which I don’t wish on any person to see. I felt like the most helpless person there was.
We were told it could be a tumor and we would know more after the surgery and biopsy. We thank goodness have one of the best surgeons we could have asked for. Her surgery was a success and we waited for her to heal and get all of the various therapies done at the hospital.
On our 5th day at the hospital, the neurologist came in and said…
“Your daughter doesn’t have a tumor. She had a hemorrhagic stroke”
We didn’t know if we should be happy or cry or what to feel. We were so thankful it wasn’t a tumour and she had no side effects from the stroke. The surgeon felt like he got everything but with the amount of blood from the bleed he couldn’t be for certain.
My little girl healed up great but was still rattled with anxiety and worry about something happening. It get better each year.
Fast forward to December 2022, Aubrey has been getting routine MRIs each year. They were all clear until the doctors say something on her most recent one. We couldn’t even believe we were in a position of uncertainty again. They scheduled for her to go an angiogram on January 2023.
Our worst nightmare had come true and it was confined Aubrey had an AVM in her left temporal lobe which is the same spot she had her brain bleed at. It was a grade 2. Her original surgeon has retired and we know we’re seeing the Neuro-vascular surgeon at Children’s Hospital.
Dr Hedyat was amazing and such a good fit for Aubrey and our family. He brought her case to his conference and all of his colleagues collectively agreed that surgery would be the best option for her.
Our hearts shattered.
How were we going to do this again? How is she going to get through this?
She’s 8 now and much more aware of what is happening.
We sat down to tell her and her brother Mason.
Did she cry? Yes but it was short lived. She got this sense of confidence out of no where. She said...
“I’m not scared mom, I can do this”
I knew she could do it.
My heart ached so bad for her but I knew she was so strong.
We went in on March 9 2023 for Aubrey to have her surgery.
They took her from us for 11.5 hours. We would get updates that she was doing great and the surgeons were still working. When we finally saw the surgeon I could have just fallen to the ground and hug him.
He said she had done amazing and he is very confident that he got the whole AVM.
When we got to see Aubrey for the first time my heart just melted. My girl was out of surgery and on her way to recovery.
We were out of the hospital in 2 days and she healed up wonderfully.
We will continue to do yearly MRIs and monitor her brain.
We are so lucky to have such an amazing Children’s hospital and some of the worlds best surgeons. We know she is going through this for a reason. We may not know it now but we will one day.
She will do great things with this experience she has been through.
