Revolutionary treatment saves nine-year-old Yate boy (From Gazette Series)

Revolutionary treatment saves nine-year-old Yate boy

1:56pm Tuesday 9th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

ISAAC Walker-Cox is a happy boy who loves life, but his family know just how lucky they are to have him.

Nine-year-old Isaac was born 13 weeks prematurely and suffered a brain haemorrhage when he was just two days old.

His mum Rebekah and dad Steven, from Yate, were told he had just a one percent chance of survival and that their first son might not make it through the night.

They then made the biggest decision of their lives to allow doctors at Southmead Hospital to carry out revolutionary treatment on Isaac to wash out toxic fluids that were inflating his brain.

Mrs Walker-Cox, 36, said: "We were told after the haemorrhage that Isaac may not make it through the night, that he had a one percent survival rate. We thought we didn’t have anything to lose."

Isaac became one of the first babies to have Drainage, Irrigation and Fibrinolytic Therapy (DRIFT) pioneered by Andrew Whitelaw, Professor of Neonatal Medicine at the University of Bristol, and Ian Pople, paediatric neurosurgeon at North Bristol NHS Trust.

The DRIFT involved ‘washing out’ the ventricles in Isaac’s brain which were filling with toxic fluids putting him at risk of severe disability.

Prior to this revolutionary trial, standard practice was to drain fluid through needles inserted in the spine or head. After several months a shunt would be permanently inserted connecting the brain to the abdomen raising the risk of infection and blockage. "Professor Whitelaw had so far carried it out on 17 babies so it was very new but we decided that if it worked it would mean Isaac did not have to have a shunt," said Mrs Walker-Cox.

"We just kept watching the liquid go through the pump day after day, just waiting to see if it worked."

The DRIFT took four days and took place when Isaac was just two weeks old. He does now have mild paralysis on the left side caused by the haemorrhage but otherwise has made a remarkable recovery. Isaac is a pupil at North Road Community Primary School in Yate and loves learning.

Mr and Mrs Walker-Cox, who have two other sons Owen, six, and Ethan, three, said they had been amazed at Isaac’s recovery.

Mrs Walker-Cox said: "We were told Isaac may not be able to walk, and we didn’t think he would be able to go to a mainstream school because we expected he would have a learning disability.

"But mentally he has no problems at all, he has an above average reading age and he is very good with computers.

"He just gets on with life and is an outgoing, happy little boy."

The trial showed that DRIFT significantly reduces the risk of disability in premature babies with serious brain haemorrhages.

Ian Pople said: "This is the first time that any treatment anywhere in the world has been shown to benefit these very vulnerable babies. "Initially known as 'Drainage, Irrigation and Fibrinolytic Therapy (DRIFT)' this treatment is now called "ventricular lavage" and it is hoped that in the very near future it will be set up as a service at Southmead Hospital."