An Australian Mother Warns Her Parents After Her Little Daughter Passes Away From A Condition That Typically Only Affects Adults
Following a little girl’s brain bleed at daycare last week, a prominent Australian doctor and mother have cautioned parents to be on the lookout for uncommon symptoms.
Despite going to daycare in good health, Allira Gunn sadly died of several brain bleeds brought on by a damaged blood artery, a disease that most parents wouldn’t imagine could happen to their child.
Allira’s caregivers phoned an ambulance and took her to Gold Coast Hospital after she woke up from her customary midday nap, but she was confused and they didn’t know what was wrong.
But when the two-year-old’s brain hemorrhaged and was irreparable, it was too late.
Initially, mother Anna Casper believed her daughter might have eaten something unhealthy or been bitten by a spider, but things soon changed.
“She’d never had any health problems. I just dropped her off like any other morning then I got that phone call,” Ms Casper told Daily Mail Australia.
“When they did the MRI they discovered she had a massive brain bleed down near her brain stem. Then she had another brain bleed. They’re not sure what set it off.”
“They said her brain swelled very quickly and was pushing on her spinal cord as well and it just shut her whole body down.”
“It went form thinking they could do something for her to them saying there was nothing they could do.”
Although they are uncommon, brain hemorrhages rank among the top 10 causes of death for children, according to Dr. Lisa Murphy, CEO of the Stroke Foundation, who spoke to Daily Mail Australia.
“It’s small numbers but it can often be catastrophic or in the very least absolutely life changing,” Dr Murphy said.
“It changes people’s lives in an instant. What that family is going through at the moment is absolutely terrible.”
“It’s turned their world upside down. I’m not surprised how shocking this is because it’s devastating.”
In the meantime, this week is Childhood Stroke Awareness Week, which is organized by the Stroke Foundation.
Because ‘people just don’t know about it,’ the organization determined that it wanted to increase awareness of childhood stroke.
“You think stroke and you think granny or grandad. You don’t think of babies and children and we need to start talking about it,” Dr Murphy said.
“We need to raise awareness in parents about childhood stroke.”
According to Dr. Murphy, diagnosing a stroke in a toddler is “tricky,” but it’s essential to the infant’s survival.
“The thing about stroke is it happens often in an instant with no warning signs,” she said.
“The key is if something happens, act on it immediately. That doesn’t mean call your GP, it means call an ambulance.”
“Every minute after a stroke 1.9million brain cells die so the sooner you get to hospital the better.”
It’s interesting to note that stroke occurs more frequently in babies than in older kids.
“In newborns it’s when those congenital conditions appear,” Dr Murphy said.
“It’s really tricky but things you can look out for are seizures, irritability, vomiting and excessive sleepiness.”
“The other thing is if they’re not moving one side of their body because stroke happens on one side of the brain.”
The family has created a GoFundMe campaign to raise just $4,000 to cover the costs of Allira’s funeral, which is now being planned by Ms. Casper and her husband Adrian.
Allira has a seven-year-old brother named Rylan who loved his younger sister, and a sixteen-year-old stepbrother.
“It’s a very difficult time. We’re just taking things a day at a time at the moment,” Ms Casper said.
