Baby Brooklyn bounces back

By Zoe Logan

The moment our son Brooklyn was born in 2021, my husband, Jordan and I knew our lives would never be the same. This little boy, now a part of our lives, had just changed our world for the better.

Within 24 hours, Brooklyn's left arm and leg began twitching. He was having seizures and was rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit. It was there Brooklyn turned purple and almost stopped breathing. We couldn’t understand how this was happening to our tiny baby boy.

Brooklyn was sent for an urgent MRI. We received a call from the doctor, and I will never forget those words “We would like to talk to you about what we are seeing. I’m not going to tell you to not worry, because you will”.

The doctor turned the computer screen towards us and said our little baby had a stroke. They told us it was likely it happened in utero, and that a blood clot travelled from my placenta to his brain.

It was the biggest shock of my life. I felt completely numb trying to make sense of what I’d just been told. I wasn’t even aware a baby could have a stroke.

In the days following the news of his stroke, Brooklyn’s seizures stopped. He was weaned from his medication and on day 9, he was able to come home!

The first weeks of his life were hard. I was a first time Mum navigating newborn baby life with the added trauma of my son’s brain injury and the fear of him having more seizures or strokes in the future.

Fast forward 3 years and Brooklyn is a thriving toddler. He has been discharged from all early intervention programs and met all milestones. With each milestone comes new fears. He will start kindy soon and face new challenges, but we are by his side every step of the way.

It’s a club that no one expects to find themselves in, and one I’m sure many people don’t know exists. But I hope by sharing Brooklyn’s story, we can raise awareness that strokes can happen to anyone of any age. We know the faster babies and children receiving diagnosis and critical early intervention care, the better their chance of survival and a good recovery.