THE parents of a 10-year-old boy who suffered a brain haemorrhage, leaving him having to learn to walk and talk again, want to thank the hospitals that saved his life.
Joey Tildesley-Devine, a Queen's Park Primary pupil, walked into class on November 16, and developed a "strange taste in his mouth".
After getting up to get a drink of water he discovered he lost his ability to talk and use his right arm.
By the time his mum, a governor at the school, came to find him after being notified by school staff, he had also lost the use of his right leg. He had been in school for 15 minutes.
After parents Karen and Nick Devine rushed him to Whiston Hospital, they did scans which found that he had AVM, arteriovenous malformation. This is a tangle of abnormal and poorly formed blood vessels that have a higher rate of bleeding than normal vessels.
He was rushed to Alder Hey Children's Hospital and had emergency brain surgery to remove the blood vessels.
His grateful mum Karen, 40, who is a neonatal midwife at Whiston Hospital, said: "Thanks to the quick reactions of the paediatric A&E at Whiston Hospital and Alder Hey neuro team, we still have Joey here, it could have been a completely different story.
"It was terrifying because you expect to maybe be called to school to say your child has hurt themself, but not that they have stroke-like symptoms – which is what happened to Joey.
"He was confused when I saw him, I had only just dropped him off and he'd lost all of his speech, the use of his right arm and his right leg in just 15 minutes.
"We've been told that childhood strokes and brain haemorrhages are rare but if it had not happened when it did then god knows what could have happened.
"Just an hour earlier he had been in bed.
"It's only been 12 weeks since it has happened but Joey has had to relearn how to speak and still struggles sometimes. He is learning how to walk again but until then he is wheelchair-bound.
"We don't know what is going to happen with his arm, as that's not come back as we would have liked so he's learning how to write with his left.
"He's been so brave. Since he was aged two, people have called him Joey the Legend but now he has really proved that is exactly what he is.
"We are still in Alder Hey but just so grateful for everything both hospitals have done for us and want to thank them for saving his life."
Family and their friends have already raised £1,000 for the two hospitals and Ronald McDonald House, where they stayed in the first week of Joey's treatment.
Joey's parents will be running the St Helens 10k with 18 other people to raise funds as well as doing Dickie bow themed events (as Joey loves wearing them).
The first being a Dickie bow tattoo event at Nick's tattoo studio Helter Skelter and a Dickie Bow Ball at Saints' Totally Wicked Stadium in June.
To donate go to bit.ly/JoeytheLegend.
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