Mother: So that, because of how unstable he was and then they took him down for an emergency scan and that's when they found out that his shunt had failed the, the -
Son: Valve.
Mother: - valve in his shunt. At first they thought there could be problems with the whole shunt in which case they said when they got the scan they might have to replace the whole thing but as it turned out they were able just to replace the valve so that he didn't have to have the two, like two operations with the incision and everything.
So the fluid was not going through to the stomach?
Mother: It wasn't going through to the stomach so he was, he, also as well because he'd been vomiting he hadn't been keeping any of his medication down so the, all the other hormonal things then were going haywire as well so that's why he, the deterioration was so rapid. Because we, we didn't know about the hydrocortisone, because they were able, obviously they knew when he got to hospital they gave him an intravenous hydrocortisone injection so that it got in to his system. Again, again his body didn't handle the stress so fighting illness or anything going on in his body where our bodies immediately there's something wrong with them your body kicks in with that hormone, [son]'s body wasn't doing that and because he don't, taken his dosage in the night and he vomited he obviously had none in his system to fight whatever it was that was going on.
And the shunt has been there for how long?
Mother: The shunt has been there now since, well since that first operation.
Son: May '99, well May '98.
Mother: May '98 he had the shunt fitted the first time and then it, they, they revised the-
Son: Valve.
Mother: - shunt, the valve then in November '99 and since then touchwood.
Son: No troubles at all.
Mother: - there's been no problems at all. Because prior to him having this crisis they had talked about possibly removing -
Son: The shunt yeah.
Mother: - the shunt and after this he's “No way, you leave it where it is.”
Son: Yeah.
Mother: Because we, we really weren't sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing but we thought well why remove it if it, if it was working fine before.
Son: It was doing its job.
Mother: But they said its just one of those things that can happen that because they, when they put the shunt in they made allowance for the fact that he probably would do a lot of growing and so they allowed for it going in to adulthood anyway so touch wood there should be no more problems. |