An Arizona boy is suffering from a mysterious medical condition that is leaving doctors puzzled at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
As of March 24, 12-year-old Luke Fanning has been in the hospital for a total of 65 days. He is now in recovery, but he was admitted to the hospital when his headaches suddenly led to seizures, a brain aneurysm, and a medically induced coma. Doctors had to put Luke in a coma for nine days in order to allow the swelling in his brain to subside.
“All I remember is just waking up, walking in to her (mom’s) room, complaining that I had a really, really, really bad headache, and just blacking out,” Luke said.
When he awoke from his coma, he couldn’t speak or move the left side of his body. He regained his speech the next day when he shared a heartfelt moment with his sister.
“She said, “I love you, Luke,’ and he said, ‘I love you.’ And that was the beginning of our healing,” Luke’s mother said.
He is learning to reuse his left arm and leg, but he will not be able to return to school for at least a few months, doctors say.
Luke’s doctors are still unsure of what caused his mysterious illness. A brain aneurysm occurs when the wall of an artery supplying blood to the brain becomes weak and swollen. In severe cases, the aneurysm can rupture, releasing blood into the skull and causing a stroke.
For a child, an aneurysm of any level of severity is rare. It isn’t something most parents think about when sending their kids off to school or putting them to bed, even though as many as 87% of parents report being worried about injuries from sports.