Published: Thursday, 15th May, 2008 08:30
Lucky to be alive
Comments (0)
Print Article
AN 11-YEAR-OLD went out to play after suffering a nasty fall from a tree – unaware that he had suffered a life-threatening blood clot close to his brain.
Doctors have told the family of young Joe MacFarlane that he could have died if his condition had gone undetected for longer.
Joe required emergency surgery to remove the clot after he fell, head-first, from a tree onto concrete slabs.
But after returning home with apparently little more than a sore head, he went out to play again – completely unaware that he desperately required hospital treatment.
He had earlier been playing hide and seek with friends in the garden of a vacant property in Grange Crescent East, Prestonpans.
Young Joe, a P7 pupil at Prestonpans Primary School, climbed a conifer in the garden to hide when he lost his footing and fell six feet to the ground.
He went to home to nearby Grange Grove and complained of a headache to his mum Margaret and dad Paul – but then went back out to play.
Said Paul: “He went out for a wee while and then came back and started vomiting.
“We rushed him up to the Sick Kids’ Hospital by car and they did emergency surgery on him to remove a blood clot.
“There is no damage to his brain as the clot was on a sac at the side of it.
The surgeon said that we got him there just in time, or he could have died.
“We would like to thank everyone at the Sick Kids for what they did for Joe.”
Staff and pupils at Prestonpans Primary School have been rallying round Joe, who spent five nights in hospital before being allowed home last Friday.
They have raised over £200 and are buying him a Celtic strip and a football. The rest of the money is going to Ward 7 at the hospital.
Class-mate Kirsty Dryburgh said: “People thought it was a good idea to try to raise money to help Joe. Our class doesn’t feel right just now because Joe always makes the jokes.”
Mum Margaret was touched by the response of the school, who have been in contact with her this week.
She said: “They’ve been great. But he’s not getting off lightly as he’s doing homework while he is off school.
“I don’t know how long he will be off school, he has an appointment at the Sick Kids on June 6 and they will decide.”
Joe’s expected to make a full recovery.
The Courier was alerted to the near tragic accident by a family friend who didn’t wish to be identified.
She said: “It is important to bring this to the attention of parents as it could happen to other kids. They should keep well away from this property.
“I just want to avoid any similar accidents happening in the future.”
Responding to these concerns, Martin Pollhammer, chief executive of East Lothian Housing Association which owns the vacant propery, expressed his concern.
He said: “We are sorry to hear about what happened to the young boy and we are obviously concerned about what happened to him. We wish him a speedy recovery.
“I can confirm that the property has been vacant since September 2006, as there have been particular structural problems with it.
“There is a particular problem of rising damp in the foundations, so we commissioned a university study to look at it and report back to us.
“Since then we have had to find suitable contractors to deal with it. To put the problems with this particular property in context, we would normally re-let a property within three weeks.”
Mr Pollhammer confirmed that he expected the property in Grange Crescent East to be occupied within the next three to four weeks.
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Dragons' Den sounds good to me