29 June 2004
My grandson, Ryan, aged seven and a half, died on 30th January 2003 from a ruptured A.V.M which apparently had been there since his birth. He was a beautiful, sensitive,thoughtful boy although could be very willful at times. On reflection I am pleased to have seen that side of his character considering the short time we spent with him.This is Ryan's A.V.M. story.
On Monday 27th January, Ryan woke up complaining of a terrible headache,my daughter, being the concerned Mum she is, took Ryan to the doctor who diagnosed a virus emerging, at this point the headache had gone.Tuesday 28th January, Ryan was fine, went to school but when my daughter collected him from school she noticed a small graze on Ryan's cheek. Asking what had happened Ryan told her he bent down to retrieve his pencil and went dizzy causing him to catch his face on his desk. Also briefly on the same day my son-in-law noticed that Ryan was blinking slightly, when he asked Ryan about it he was told by Ryan its okay now.
Wednesday 29th January, Ryan once again said he had a headache although not as severe as the first one. My daughter, not wanting to appear as a neurotic mother, asked my son-in-law to return to the doctors with Ryan. Given the dizzy spell scenario, the doctor checked Ryans balance etc but the doctor still diagnosed a virus emerging.
On the way home my son-in-law called at his Mums where Ryan suffered a seizure of sorts,was duly admitted to hospital, given an E.E.G which showed some abnormality and a full brain scan was scheduled for the following morning. However at 4:30am with his Dad at his bedside Ryan suffered a massive bleed in his brain and passed away.
We now know the first headache was the start of the ruptured AVM and the dizzy spell was another factor, plus Ryan blinking his eyes must have been double vision but we were not aware of this AVM condition.
I work in the local hospital (where Ryan died) and the lack of knowledge regarding AVM's is very negative. I feel so angry in the fact that Ryan did not have a chance to display his symptoms over a longer period of time as I have learned through research that he could have had surgery (gamma knife) not to say it would have been successful but who knows?
At present my daughter and son-in-law are devastated, as well as Ryan's siblings Tom 7 and Jenny 4 plus myself and the rest of my family.
© Copyright 2004 Lynne Williams
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