When six-year-old Ottilie Atkins complained of feeling sick and dizzy after an afternoon of soft play, her mother assumed she was suffering from a case of exhaustion.
But within hours, the girl’s vision became blurry and her eyes “stopped working in unison.”
Ottilie’s mother Holly, 34, rushed her daughter to hospital, where doctors ran a series of tests and discovered the schoolgirl had suffered a life-threatening stroke.
The fatal stroke occurs when the blood supply to the brain is cut off, usually due to a blood clot or rupture of a blood vessel within the brain.
While most strokes affect people over 65, the number of younger people suffering from them is increasing.
A recent MailOnline analysis of NHS data revealed that strokes among men under 39 have increased by almost a quarter over the past two decades.
The Stroke Association has previously predicted that the number of people aged 45 and over affected will have increased by 59 per cent between 2018 and 2035.
Childhood stroke is rare, affecting around 400 UK children a year, according to the charity Brain Research UK.
When six-year-old Ottilie Atkins complained of feeling sick and dizzy after an afternoon of soft play, her mother assumed she was suffering from a case of exhaustion.
Ottilile’s mother Holly, 34, rushed her daughter to hospital, where doctors ran a series of tests and discovered the schoolgirl had suffered a life-threatening stroke.
In the case of Ottilie Atkins, doctors explained that the illness had occurred as a result of a “reactivated” case of chickenpox she had suffered 18 months earlier.
The infection caused inflammation in the brain that eventually led to a stroke. In about one or two out of every 1,000 cases of chickenpox, the virus reaches the brain and causes encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain.
Holly now runs 31km during December to raise money for children’s charity Great Ormond Street Hospital, which helped Ottilie.
Speaking of the ordeal, Mrs Atkins, from Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, said: “Ottilie has There is no real history of any health problems, in general she has always been very healthy.
‘She came out of a very small, soft game, she was a tiny little thing, just her and her sister jumping around.
“She was very pale and said, ‘I feel very dizzy.’ She had a sticky feeling, like she was sweaty and cold.
‘I thought maybe he had been running too much, maybe he had exhausted himself and gotten a little overheated because he was inside.
‘She sat down and ate some sandwiches. Her color started to return but she kept saying she felt very dizzy.
Although the majority of strokes affect people over 65 years of age, more and more young people are suffering from them
“I said, ‘Okay, we’re going home soon, so I’ll take you and we’ll drop off dad and your sisters.’
“As I walked with her I felt like I was losing my balance.”
After returning home, Ottilie watched a movie before starting to complain about ‘see things twice’.
‘When I looked at her I felt like I wasn’t looking forward. He tried to blink and change the way he looked.
“I was looking forward with one eye and it looked like the other eye was almost spinning freely, it was really horrible to see.
‘The week before that, just by pure coincidence, I took her for an eye test because she was due one. The optician told me I had great vision.
“Then I saw this and thought, ‘What happened in the space of a week?’
Ms Atkins took Ottilie to the emergency department at Watford General Hospital, where she underwent an eye test, a CT scan, blood tests and two MRI scans.
Holly now runs 31km during December to raise money for children’s charity Great Ormond Street Hospital, which helped Ottilie.
On October 17, four days after she was admitted to the children’s ward for tests, a doctor told her the news that Ottilie had suffered a stroke.
“I couldn’t really understand what he was saying,” he said. ‘All I heard was the word stroke and I thought I had heard wrong.
‘I said, “I’m sorry, can I clarify? You said he had a stroke?” I couldn’t believe what she was saying. She said it was very strange that she had a lot of bad luck, but He was lucky the severity wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
The young woman remained in hospital for three weeks to receive medication when doctors revealed that the stroke was caused by the chickenpox she had had 18 months ago.
The mother admits that she is grateful that she took Ottilie to the hospital as quickly as she did, as she is now recovering smoothly on regular medication.
‘I am very grateful to have taken her to the hospital and examined her.
‘His eyesight is still affected. It has been gradually improving, but we never knew at what point it might stop improving or if it will improve at all.
‘She still has double vision when she looks to the right. Now he manages by moving his head a lot more to counteract it.
Stroke symptoms are commonly remembered by this four-letter acronym, FAST. Patients who suffer a stroke may often have their face drooping to one side, have difficulty raising both arms and difficulty speaking, while time is of the essence as immediate treatment for a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or A minor stroke can substantially reduce the risk of having a stroke. much deadlier stroke
Other telltale signs of a stroke are less known. These include numbness on one side of the body, vertigo, and difficulty swallowing, all of which appear suddenly.
‘Doctors said that children’s brains can simply rewire themselves, and that’s why she achieved truly amazing improvement in a matter of weeks. If I were an adult it wouldn’t be the same.’
Holly now encourages parents to “follow your instincts” and have their children checked if they start to suffer unusual symptoms.
He also wants to raise awareness of the NHS ‘BE FAST’ campaign, which stands for ‘balance, eyes, face, arms, speech and time’ and which hopes to diagnose and treat stroke patients faster.
‘My advice would be to follow your instinct. When I saw that his eyes weren’t working in unison I thought something was wrong, so I went to get help.
‘As parents we always want to help our children, but sometimes life is busy and there are waiting lists for emergencies.
Never let that discourage you. Doctors are the professionals, seek their help.’