A young Bannockburn boy defied the odds by starting his first day of primary school this week.
Ryan Paterson suffered a bleed on the brain when he was just five months old, following a stroke, and had to have surgery to stop the haemorrhage.
Now the four-year-old has joined his new classmates in Bannockburn Primary to the delight of his proud parents, Gayle and Ross.
Mum Gayle has described Ryan as her ‘little solider’ ahead of his big day.
The family’s world was turned upsidedown in February 2015. Ryan was initially admitted to Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert after becoming unwell. It was first believed that he had contracted meningitis. When tests failed to pinpoint the problem he was then transferred to Yorkhill Children’s Hospital, Glasgow, where he was placed on life support for two days.
He was diagnosed as having suffered a bleed in his brain as a result of haemophilia – a condition in which the ability of the blood to clot is severely reduced, causing the sufferer to bleed severely from even a slight injury – and required emergency surgery to relieve the pressure.
Surgeons successfully released the pressure and after surgery a drain was left in to remove the excess blood.
He was given Factor VIII – an essential blood-clotting protein – every 12 hours after surgery to stop a relapse and then moved to a high dependency ward where he stayed in hospital for a further three weeks for treatment.
The bleed on the brain also caused mild cerebral palsy.
Gayle, who cares for Ryan full-time, administers a life-saving clotting factor injection every second day.
Gayle said: “He’s our little soldier. He doesn’t quite understand that he’s off to school, he thinks he’s going back to nursery, but we’re so proud of him.
“When he was first taken in to hospital he was given a 50/50 chance of survival because they couldn’t work out what was wrong. When it all happened it shattered our world. It was such a scary time but at Yorkhill the amazing team of doctors and nurses saved his life.”
