MILEY’S STORY:
Miley Todd
Miley was a perfectly healthy, happy, 10-year-old girl. However, on the morning of Sunday 14th October 2018, whilst on a weekend away with her family, she woke up feeling sick - she had been having intermittent headaches for a couple of weeks, but was otherwise in good health. After a quick call to q-doc, she was taken to West Cumberland Infirmary by her Mam, Lesley, and Dad, Dominic, to have a check over.
She was placed on an IV and had numerous tests performed throughout the day. Numerous Doctors had a look at her, and they decided to keep her in over night - which she was not happy about, as she was going to miss school (she loved school). She had been observed all day and by 8pm she was feeling a bit better, so Dad left to collect Miley’s little sister, Talia, from her older sister Sam’s house, to take her home for tea and bedtime.
At around 11pm, Miley told the doctor she was hungry, and he said he would ask the nurse to get her some food, before giving her a painkiller for her headache. However, shortly after taking the pill, and before her food arrived, she started to fit and lost consciousness - she never opened her big beautiful eyes again. The doctor was in complete shock, and started immediate treatment for meningitis, as he assumed that must be the cause. He then said that her brain would shut down for the next 5 hours. He was right, and at around 4am the following morning, Miley fitted again. It became obvious that something was seriously wrong.
The nectar team from The Great North Children’s Hospital (The RVI), Newcastle, arrived as soon as they could, and immediately arranged to take Miley for a CT scan. The results showed that she needed an urgent transfer to the RVI, where surgeons would be waiting to undergo a procedure to relive pressure on her brain.
Miley went straight into theatre upon arrival. Surgeons removed a clot from the lower part of her brain, however, due to the amount of time it had taken to get the clot removed, the damage which had been done was extensive. They had fitted a drain to relive pressure, but the next few hours would be critical. Her siblings were called at around 5pm on Monday 15th October, and they were told to get through as soon as they could. All 4 arrived 2 hours later, and joined Mam and Dad at her bedside.
She made little improvements over the next few days, and even had to have another surgery to relive more pressure within her head. She had a lot of visitors in the days that followed her arrival - she loved her whole family so much, and they would do anything for her - but there was still no good news.
On Friday 19th October, a top neurosurgeon was attending to review Miley’s case. The whole family was waiting to see what the next move would be. Following the surgeon’s visit, the family were told that all of the surgeons and consultants had came to the conclusion that keeping her alive any longer would be unethical, and they expected that when the machines were turned off, she would die. She passed away at 19:30 on Friday 19th October.
