Katie Buckley says when her son Wilson was born almost five years ago, a stroke was the furthest thing from her mind, but at only five days old Wilson wasn’t sleeping and a midwife identified something was seriously wrong.
“She says your baby is having seizures but it’s really hard to know if a newborn’s having a seizure.”
Wilson quickly ended up at Kingston General Hospital and doctors weren’t sure he would survive.
Buckley says it was the beginning of a long and frightening journey for the family.
“That part was hard and then he did get flown to sick kids and we weren’t allowed to go with him, that was also really hard.”
Pediatrician Dr. Karen Grewal says diagnosing strokes in babies is difficult – symptoms can be subtle, like smacking lips or abnormal breathing patterns.
“They may present either at the time of birth with seizures or the immediate newborn period with seizures that can look really subtle, that can be just subtle movements of the mouth or subtle movements of the feet, like peddling of the feet.”
Strokes in babies usually happen in utero or shortly after birth and are quite often a symptom of some other health issue.
Dr. Grewal says modern medicine is still only beginning to find all the causes that can lead to pediatric stroke.
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“Infections such as meningitis, things like underlying cardiac conditions.”
Wilson’s stroke was a result of a heart condition.
Buckley says she’s speaking publicly because pediatric strokes aren’t something new parents are aware of or looking for.
“Even health professionals don’t know that children and babies can have strokes and it’s just as important for emergency services to realize that a child is having a stroke as an adult because it’s just as much an emergency.”
Buckley says having a child that has had a pediatric stroke is a case of constant and ongoing monitoring.
About a year ago she noticed a change in her son.
“I said that I think he’s doing these little staring spells and everybody was like, ‘oh you know you’re just paying too much attention to it,’ but you go and those are actually absent seizures.”
Wilson’s condition requires regular visits to the doctor and hospital, including Sick Kids in Toronto.
According to the Canadian Pediatric Stroke Support Association, pediatric strokes affect 1 in 2300 births in Canada.
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