Friday, 29 July 2011

'Miracle boy'

Thirteen-year-old Lee is a school boxing champion "Let him go or let them operate and take a chance."

That was the dilemma facing the parents of 13-year-old Lee McMillan after being told their son's illness had got so bad an operation performed only once before on a child was their only chance he would live.

But that "terrifying decision" to give the operation the go-ahead saved the Merseyside teenager's life.

Lee, from Litherland in Sefton, had come home from school one Friday in May saying he had a headache. Three days later his mother Tracy Jennings found him having a seizure.

He was rushed into hospital where he was diagnosed with encephalitis, an infection which causes brain swelling.

Less than a week later, the schoolboy boxing champion was in a coma.

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteThis was the worst case of encephalitis I've ever seen... we thought he was going to die”

End QuoteDr Rachel KneenConsultant paediatric neurologist "We went home and called called back because he'd been unresponsive," his mother Tracy Jennings said.

"It was awful, I couldn't believe it was happening. A boy came home from school on Friday with a headache and then to be faced with him nearly dying, it just didn't seem real."

Even if Lee survived the groundbreaking operation there was no guarantee of a full recovery.

The doctors could not say if Lee would sustain brain damage or if he would be able to walk or talk again.

"To be put in that position and looking at him lying on that bed and deciding what to do with him was the hardest thing I think any parent could ever do," Ms Jennings said.

"But that's what we were faced with. Let him go or let them operate and take a chance."

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