Brighton baby Daniel who had a stroke at birth is now looking forward to a special Christmas

Christmas will be extra special this year for a Brighton couple whose baby had a stroke at birth.

India Cross and Robert Platica, together with baby Daniel, are joining forces with the Stroke Association to raise awareness of childhood stroke and help launch a Christmas fundraising appeal for the charity.

Within hours of their son Daniel being born in March 2024, the first-time parents had to come to terms with him being rushed into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Royal Sussex County Hospital and becoming one of the 400 children in the UK who have a stroke each year.

India, 26, said: “I had a completely normal, healthy pregnancy with Daniel. Despite having a long labour, it was considered a straightforward labour and delivery.

“Daniel was originally admitted to the NICU for an infection and breathing difficulties four hours after his birth. At first, they were worried a valve in his heart hadn’t closed properly – but it turned out he didn’t produce any surfactant at birth to clear this stickiness off his lungs. We were also told he needed antibiotics for an infection.

“Despite being in the NICU, we were reassured his condition was stable. But early the next morning Daniel’s condition spiralled. Daniel had had a full body seizure lasting for five minutes.

“Later in the day, Daniel held my finger in his hand and out of nowhere his fist started to continuously clench. At first, I thought he was just gripping my finger until the nurse came over and spotting it and said he’s having another seizure down the right-hand side of his body.

“I felt like I had completely failed as a mother not realising my son was having a seizure. During this time, Daniel had to have an Electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor his brain activity and, later that day, an MRI.

“The results showed that Daniel had a neonatal stroke. They couldn’t be sure when or why this happened but most likely due to a blood clot in the placenta, cutting off oxygen supply to his brain. I never knew children could have strokes.

“Because of all of this, and also trying to recover myself from giving birth, it took me a really long time to fully get my head around everything that happened. Daniel was on anti-seizure medication for 24 hours. Fortunately, Daniel didn’t have any more seizures, so he didn’t need any ongoing medication, and it was a miracle that we were home a week later.

“For the first year we received a lot of aftercare including bi-monthly physiotherapy to monitor his progress at our local children’s development centre. We also see an occupational therapist and physiotherapist once a year at our local hospital, as well as a doctor every three to six months for the first year which has now reduced to once a year. We also saw a children’s neurologist in London twice when Daniel was six months and 14 months old, but he had made such strong progress that they discharged us from their care.

“Life is slowly getting easier now, but for the first six to eight months of Daniel’s life I felt like every milestone he reached was always referred back to the stroke. It can be really hard not to overthink different movements or things he does, without wondering if something is ‘normal’.

“However, we are incredibly luckily that, right now, there is no obvious impact of Daniel’s stroke. He hit every milestone on time and sometimes earlier than usual. I am also so proud to get to a point where we can separate him from his stroke and just celebrate him learning something new like any other baby. But with neonatal strokes, it’s a very long process as you don’t really know the extent of the impact until they’re older, even if it is subtle.

“I also worry about future pregnancies and births, as I’m not sure how I would cope with it all again. Daniel’s stroke is one of those things that we’ll never know why it happened; we just have to accept it.”

India urged any parents who found themselves in her situation to reach out to Stroke Association’s dedicated childhood stroke support team.

“I didn't really know the Stroke Association’s childhood stroke support service was available to us until earlier this year. It is definitely something I would recommend to parents in the early stages of their stroke journey as it was something I wish we had known about.”

The family are looking forward to making Daniel’s second Christmas as relaxing as possible.

“Christmas 2024 was Daniel’s first festive season, and, like a lot of new parents, we wanted it to be memorable, but I think I put a lot of pressure on myself that everything had to be perfect. He was only nine months at the time so realistically he had no clue what was going on. As Daniel’s stroke was on the 25^th of the month, Christmas Day was also exactly nine months post-stroke.

“This year, we’ve decided to take the pressure off and not worry about too many plans and traditions and have a bit of fun instead. It’s really just about focussing on the little moments rather than trying to make the whole day perfect.”

The Stroke Association has released a short film, ‘Still Christmas’, featuring home videos and photos shared by stroke survivors and their families, taken at Christmas time after their stroke. The film depicts the reality of facing Christmas after the impact of a stroke and how different this time of year can be for survivors and their families. It goes live on 19 November.

Nick O’Donohue, the Stroke Association’s associate director for the South East, said: “For another 85,000 people in the UK, this year will be their first Christmas after a stroke, and those things we all take for granted are no longer the same.

A stroke can have physical and cognitive impacts, as well as emotional trauma, with survivors facing a long journey to relearn lost skills and adapt to new circumstances.

“We’re encouraging everyone to give the gift of stroke support this Christmas, whether as a donation, volunteering your time or fundraising.”

To give the gift of stroke support this Christmas, visit stroke.org.uk/stillchristmas   

More information on the Stroke Association’s childhood stroke support team can be found on its website www.stroke.org.uk