My 9 year old son is fighting for his life after falling 8ft off his scooter – traumatizing our family
A BOY who fell head first off his scooter onto a concrete floor off an eight foot wall is still recovering six months later.
Loan Watts was playing outside waiting for his brother to get ready for school when he slipped off a ledge and his horrified family found he was having a seizure.
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The nine-year-old kept losing consciousness and his frightened mother, Lydia, rushed over to call emergency services.
The 43-year-old told WalesOnline: “The ambulance got here very quickly and then the air ambulance landed next to the house and saved his life.
“Air ambulance crews worked at his home for about an hour or more, putting him on a breathing tube and giving him medication to minimize the swelling in his brain.”
The youngster’s Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was checked by paramedics, who found he scored just three – the lowest possible and linked to a high death rate.
Lydia described the horror of waiting while around 20 medics at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff worked to save her son’s life after discovering he had multiple skull fractures and brain swelling.
Loan stayed in the pediatric intensive care unit at Noah’s Ark for almost a month and, according to his mother, was “probably the sickest child there in quite a while.”
“On the fifth day after his accident, Ioan required emergency surgery to save his life,” explained Lydia.
“They had to remove part of his skull to relieve the pressure on his brain.
“They said that if they didn’t operate immediately, he would be gone.”
After about an hour into an MRI scan, doctors determined Lydia that her son might not make it and determined that Loan was a patient not to be resuscitated.
The little boy was placed in a coma for three and a half weeks, but to the family’s astonishment, their son eventually showed signs of improvement.
Loan’s eyes began to open and his pupils responded to light, allowing him to breathe and urinate rapidly without assistance.
His mother said: “After three and a half weeks in intensive care, they agreed to take his breathing tube out.
“They didn’t know if he would be able to breathe on his own, but he did. That was a great relief for us. They had talked about it for 10 days but he wasn’t strong enough before that.”
For about three months, Loan’s family spent more time in the hospital than at home, patiently waiting by his bedside.
Uncertain if their son would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life or be able to communicate and live independently, they were overjoyed to see his recovery.
“His recovery has been so amazingly quick,” said a proud Lydia.
“In early November he couldn’t speak or move, but by the end of November he was walking, talking and playing on his Xbox – not quite like before as he was still learning a lot.
“Now we’re four or five months later and he can do almost everything he could do before.”
They had to remove part of his skull to relieve the pressure on his brain. They said if they didn’t operate right away, he would be gone.”
Lydia
After a grueling 10 weeks of physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy with the Noah’s Ark neurorehabilitation program, Loan was told he could finally go home.
And now, with extra support, Loan is able to attend school full-time, but Lydia explained his injuries left permanent damage.
“He struggles with his attention span and impulsiveness, like yelling inappropriate things, which he hasn’t done before,” she said.
“He was always just a normal, shy, quiet and smart boy, and now he’s very different.”
The family have set up a fundraiser through JustGiving to support the Welsh Air Ambulance charity, which they say saved their son’s life
Loan will be running the Caerphilly 2k with his brother Rhodri and around 30 friends from his school to raise the money.
“The ambulance came so quickly when he had his accident and I don’t think he would have been alive without them,” added Lydia.
“The work they did on him before he even got to the hospital probably made all the difference for him.”
They also plan to donate funds to the team that took care of Loan at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital.
The family feels both “happy and traumatized” after the last six life-changing months, adding, “It’s going to take some time for all of us to process.”
“Loan is aware of what happened and talks about it a lot. He doesn’t want to be treated differently than everyone else, he just wants to be normal.
“It was harder for Rhodri than for everyone else because they are so old and they are best friends.
“It was really hard for him with his brother and parents gone but luckily his older brothers Reuben, 22, and Tavis, 20, were there to look after him.”
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