Children have Strokes too!

Hi Everyone!

If you have been around my blog for any length of time, I am sure at one time or another I have probably mentioned that our son Austin has a disability.  What many people do not know--even people who know us in "real life" for years and years--is that Austin had a stroke before he was born.

Yes, you read that right.  In utero.  A stroke.  And it wasn't from an event such as being in a car accident or anything that one could explain.  I had the absolutely perfect pregnancy--no problems at all.  No problems, that is, until Austin suddenly arrived two months early.

Even with being born premature, after weeks and weeks in the pediatric intensive care unit, we thought we were "done" and went home to live a normal life.  Wrong!  Even with adjusting for milestones and accounting for Austin's "adjusted" age as doctors do for babies born premature, it started becoming obvious that Austin was not doing things that babies should start doing.  Things like rolling over, sitting up, and walking.

It was then that a brain MRI revealed what none of us knew up to that point--Austin had experienced a stroke.  A large stroke.  Based upon the scaring and other things he could see on the MRI, the pediatric neurologist identified it as having happened around month three of pregnancy.

Thus began our journey.

With May being Pediatric Stroke Awareness month, I asked Austin if he would be willing to make up a short video sharing his perspective on growing up as a stroke survivor.  He had a bit of free time today, and the video above is the result of his project.

I hope this video will help as many people as possible to realize that babies and children can have strokes too--and that if YOU ever meet a family who has a pediatric stroke survivor, please tell them about www.chasa.org

~Susan