Meet Carter — Perinatal Stroke

When my son was first born, he was super ‘jumpy’ and ‘shivered’ a lot. We figured it was normal baby behavior and that he was just cold. When he was about thirty-two hours old, I had a lactation consultant in the room with me and I pointed out that his lip was twitching. She paused for a second, took my son to the hallway, and waved another nurse over. They stood there whispering for a few seconds, and the next thing I know they put him in the bassinet and took him to the NICU. I had no idea what was going on other than they said they were going to run some tests. About three hours later, they said I could go down to the NICU to see my baby, and I was able to hold him again. I only had him in my arms for about five minutes before he began to have a very strong seizure. My son was then lifelined by helicopter to a children’s hospital about an hour away. I wasn’t able to meet him there until the next day, but when I got there he had EEG’S all over his head, an IV in his umbilical cord, and hooked up to tons of other monitors. I hated seeing him like that! I also wasn’t able to hold him or nurse him for three days, which is how long it took for them to get his seizures under control. We spent eight days in the NICU and were eventually told he had almost fifteen seizures a day and a stroke in the front right and back left portions of his brain.

We have done physical therapy once a week ever since he was a few weeks old, and we meet with his neurologist every two months. He is almost six months old now and is completely healthy, reaching every milestone so far!

I never knew strokes in children were possible, but now I know and try to bring awareness to other parents!