Toddler survives after life-support turned off
Published: July 10, 2006
A TODDLER miraculously survived after doctors turned off his life-support machine saying there was nothing else they could do for him.
Two-year-old James Smart started breathing on his own despite showing no sign of life after contracting a deadly strain of meningitis a week earlier.
Doctors feared James would be left in a vegetative state, but he continues to amaze medical staff with his progress.
James first began to feel unwell in February this year when his worried mother, Ellie Craven, 21, took him to the doctor.
He was sent home with a suspected throat infection, but less than 24 hours later he was fighting for his life, after being diagnosed with pneumococcal meningitis.
Miss Craven, who lives in Wakefield, was in labour with her second child, Harry, when James was rushed to hospital.
Both mother and son were taken separately to Leeds General Infirmary where Miss Craven only got to see him for a few seconds before she was taken to the labour ward to give birth.
James, who was not responding to treatment, was taken to intensive care.
Miss Craven said: “The midwife kept telling me to concentrate on giving birth but all I could think about was my little boy who was fighting for his life and I wasn’t with him.”
After giving birth to Harry, Miss Craven was taken to see James and together with his father, Adrian, 36, kept a bedside vigil for a week until doctors decided they had to turn off the life-support machine.
Miss Craven said: “He was in such a deep coma that they said there was no point in keeping him on the machine.
“We stood there while doctors turned off the machine for the second time and nobody could believe it when he started to breath on his own. It was like our own little miracle.”
Despite his survival, James was still in a critical condition and doctors warned the couple he could be left deaf, dumb and blind.
At first he did not even recognise his own parents and could do nothing for himself.
However, after nine weeks in hospital, where he underwent intensive physio and speech therapy, he was allowed home.
After two months recovering at home he is able to hear, see and is talking again, though not quite as much as before.
He is not able to walk yet, still has weakness down his right side but hopefully in time he will make a full recovery.
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