- Geraint Richards had lived with the ‘routine’ condition all his life
- But one day in January felt breathless and had massive asthma attack
- He then went into cardiac arrest and was clinically dead for 14 minutes
- During this time he was starved of oxygen and can no longer move or talk
- Family have spoken out to raise awareness about the dangers of asthma
08:23 EST, 15 May 2014
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08:54 EST, 15 May 2014
The family of a schoolboy left brain damaged after an asthma attack have spoken out to warn others of the devastation the condition can cause.
Geraint Richards,11, had lived with the ‘routine’ condition all his life with no previous complications.
But his family’s life was turned upside down after he suffered a near-fatal attack on the short walk home from school.
Tragic: Geraint Richards has been left brain damaged after an asthma attack. His father Chris (pictured) says his son’s condition was always ‘well controlled’
As a team at Bridgend’s Princess of Wales Hospital later battled to bring his condition under control, the youngster suffered a panic attack before later going into cardiac arrest – during which a medical team battled for 14 minutes to revive him.
The terrifying ordeal – which happened as his parents Chris and Julie could only watch helplessly – left the schoolboy from Tondu, near Bridgend, with debilitating injuries due to a lack of oxygen.
Since the asthma attack on January 31, he has spent three weeks in intensive care at the University Hospital of Wales, a further week on the high dependency unit, and has been at the Noah’s Ark
Children’s Hospital in Cardiff ever since.
His parents, who have barely left his bedside since he first fell ill, say their son faces a long road of rehabilitation and therapy.
They have also had to come to terms with the fact their son – as they used to know him – has gone for good.
Geraint’s father Chris, 44, said: ‘He has always suffered with asthma and it was under control.
‘Well controlled’: Geraint, 11, had lived with the ‘routine’ condition all his life with no previous complications and took his medication regularly
‘He was under a consultant and he was really pleased with him. In fact, the week before this happened we had discussed the possibility of him being discharged from his regular check-ups because we were worried about him missing school.
‘The day it happened was just a normal day – he went to school
‘He rang my wife at about 1pm saying he felt a bit ill . She said she finished work at 2pm and, if he still felt ill, to call her and she would pick him up.
‘She never heard from him, so presumed he was okay. But when school finished, he phoned to say he was feeling unwell, his chest was tight and that he’d run out of his inhlaer.
‘The school is only a short walk from our home, but by the time my wife got to him in the car, he was practically sat on the floor struggling to breathe.
‘She knew straight away it was bad, so she took him to the nearby surgery where she works.’
Geraint was put on a nebuliser (a machine that delivers asthma drugs) but when it had little effect, he was rushed to hospital in Bridgend.
Emergency: During the asthma attack, Geraint went into cardiac arrest. He was clinically dead for 14 minutes and his brain was starved of oxygen
His father added: ‘They tried back-to-back nebulisers and an injection in to the vein, but nothing worked.’
By 11.30pm, with his condition failing to improve, an intensive care team was called in to transfer him to Cardiff.
But to his family’s horror, he went into cardiac arrest and it took a further five hours to stabilise the youngster before he could be transferred.
By then, then the attack had had life-changing consequences for Geraint.
During a cardiac arrest, the blood supply to the vital organs – including the brain – stops. If oxygenated blood does not get to the brain, there will be neurological damage, which is what happened to Geraint.
His father said: ‘He’s communicating by blinking and making noises, but we hope that one day
he will get his speech back.
‘The only way I can explain it is that he’s the same boy with the same memories and sense of humour, but he’s trapped in a body that he can’t move and he can’t talk.’
Battle: Geraint’s brain damage means he can now only communicate by blinking and making noises. HIs father Chris said: ‘He’s the same boy with the same memories and sense of humour, but he’s trapped in a body that he can’t move’
A team of brain injury specialists from Tadworth, Nottingham, were due to assess the youngster this week and his parents and older sister Kayley, 18, are hopeful he will eventually regain some mobility and speech.
But they are preparing themselves for a long and difficult road ahead.
Mr Richards said: ‘It’s totally turned our lives upside down. Our daughter’s been absolutely fantastic and is trying to be so strong, but we don’t have any quality time with her.
‘The worst bit is that it’s so hard to believe that in this day and age that asthma can be so devastating.
‘Geraint was just a normal boy who loved his sport, XBox and fishing. But then he was so close to dying. In fact, he was clinically dead for 14 minutes.’
The family made the difficult decision to share their story in the same week as the National Review of Asthma Deaths claimed people in the UK are dying unnecessarily as a result of complacency on the part of both medical professionals and asthma sufferers.
The study found the UK has some of the highest asthma death rates in Europe and the Richards family are determined to do all they can to improve understanding of the condition.
Fight: Medics at Bridgend’s Princess of Wales Hospital (pictured) had battled to bring Geraint’s condition under control, but he continued to deteriorate
Mr Richards said: ‘There definitely needs to be more awareness, especially among children.
Children think they are bomb-proof.
‘We’ve had times with Geraint where we’d say “have you taken your pump [inhaler]?†and he’d say “yesâ€.
‘We’d say “are you sure?†and then he’d take it.
‘But he was generally really good with it, and this happened to him. On the day it happened he had done everything right, he’d taken his medication as planned.
‘People think it’s so routine, but it can turn in an instant and once it gets so far you are in real trouble.’
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The comments below have been moderated in advance.
Bella,
London, United Kingdom,
2 hours ago
Just breaks my heart to read this. Life can just change in a blink of an eye.
welshlad,
Stoke on Trent, United Kingdom,
2 hours ago
Schools do not care so much for Asthma. They are ignorant to the danger and risk to life.
lol,
manchester,
3 hours ago
Sad! …………hope he improves !
Morrison L,
Bristol, United Kingdom,
5 hours ago
Asthma is never “routineâ€. It is stupid to think it is. Living with an asthma sufferer, am terrified of it.
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