My nine-year-old son is fighting for life after he fell 8 feet off of his scooter – our family is traumatised | The Sun
A BOY who fell off his scooter head first onto a concrete floor from an eight foot wall is still recovering six months later.
Loan Watts was playing outside, waiting for his brother to get ready for school, when he slipped off a ledge and his horrified family found him having a seizure.
The nine-year-old slipped in and out of consciousness and his terrified mum, Lydia, rushed to call the emergency services.
The 43-year-old told WalesOnline: "The ambulance came here really quickly and then the air ambulance landed next to the house and saved his life.
"Air ambulance staff worked on him at home for about an hour or more, they put a breathing tube on him and gave him medication to minimise the swelling in his brain."
The youngster's Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was checked by paramedics who assessed he scored just three – the lowest possible and associated with high death rate.
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Lydia described the horror of waiting while about 20 medical professionals at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, worked to save her son's life after discovering he had multiple skull fractures and swelling on the brain.
Loan stayed in the Noah's Ark paediatric intensive care unit for nearly a month and was "probably the illest child there for quite some time" according to his mum.
"On day five following his accident Ioan needed emergency surgery to save his life", Lydia explained.
"They needed to remove part of his skull to relieve the pressure on his brain.
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"They said if they didn't operate straight away, he would be gone."
After around an hour in an MRI scan, doctors braced Lydia that her son may not make it and determined Loan was a 'do not resuscitate' patient.
The little boy was placed into a coma for three and a half weeks, but, to the family's amazement, their son eventually started to show signs of improvement.
Loan's eyes began to open and his pupils reacted to light, which was quickly followed by his ability to breath and urinate without support.
His mum said: "After three-and-a-half weeks in intensive care they agreed to take his breathing tube out.
"They didn't know if he was going to be able to breathe for himself but he did. That was a huge relief for us. They had been talking about doing that for 10 days but he hadn't been strong enough previously."
For about three months Loan's family spent more time in the hospital than at home, patiently waiting at his bedside.
Unsure whether their son would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, or able to communicate and live independently, they were overjoyed when they saw his recovery.
"His recovery was so astonishingly quick", said a proud Lydia.
"At the start of November he couldn't speak or move, but by the end of November he could walk, talk and play on his Xbox – not quite as he could before as he was still relearning a lot.
"Now we are four or five months later and he can do almost everything he could do before."
They needed to remove part of his skull to relieve the pressure on his brain. They said if they didn't operate straight away, he would be gone."
After a gruelling 10 weeks of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, with Noah's Ark neuro rehabilitation programme, Loan was told he could finally go home.
And now, Loan is able to attend school full-time with extra support, but Lydia explained his injuries have left lasting damage.
"He struggles with his attention span and impulsivity such as shouting inappropriate things out, which he didn't do before", she said.
"He was always a very normal, shy, quiet and clever boy, and he is now very different."
The family have set up a fundraiser through JustGiving to support the Welsh Air Ambulance charity, which they say saved their son's life
Loan will be running the Caerphilly 2k with his brother Rhodri and around 30 friends from his school to help raise the money.
"The air ambulance came so quickly when he had his accident and I don't think he would be alive if it wasn't for them", added Lydia.
"The work they did on him before he even got to hospital probably made all the difference to him."
They also plan to donate funds to the team who took care of Loan at Noah's Ark Children's Hospital.
The family feel both "lucky and traumatised" following the last life-changing six months, adding: "It's going to take us all a bit of time to process it all."
"Loan is aware of what happened and talks about it a lot. He doesn't want to be treated any differently than anyone else, he just wants to be normal.
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"It's been harder for Rhodri than anybody because they are so close in age and are best mates.
"It was really hard for him with his brother and parents being gone, but luckily his older brothers Reuben, 22, and Tavis, 20, were there to look after him."
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