Child's name: Cameron
Support Coordinator's name: Isobel
Location:
Cameron, from Southampton, was visiting his father for the weekend in Winchester when he fell a zip wire in a local park. Cameron fell from 8ft in the air to land on his head. Cameron suffered a seizure at the scene and was rushed to the Accident and Emergency department at Winchester General hospital before being transferred to Southampton Children’s Hospital.
Cameron was placed in an induced coma, his family were told to expect the worst. Cameron’s mum says “I completely broke down, I didn’t know what to think”. Soon, Cameron’s grandparents made it to the hospital to support Cameron’s mum and Cameron was moved to the children’s neurosurgery ward in Southampton Children’s Hospital. After some tests and scans on Cameron’s brain, Cameron’s family were informed that he had suffered a skull fracture and would need to stay in the hospital for a few weeks.
During his stay, Cameron did not initially recognise his mum and found it hard to be alert and active for most of the day. However, after a few days being treated by the staff at Southampton hospital, Cameron began to get better. Slowly, he began to recognise his family and his siblings could visit him again. All in all, Cameron spent two and a half weeks in Southampton hospital and was able to come home after his short stay.
Once settled at home, the local ABI Coordinator, Isobel, from the Child Brain Injury Trust visited Cameron and his family to offer reassurance about their transition home and answer questions regarding Cameron’s injury. Isobel was able to provide explanations to the entire family as well as decipher information sent from the hospital for Cameron’s parents. However, shortly after settling in at home, Cameron’s mum saw a change in his behaviour, memory and sensory processing abilities. Isobel was able to work with Cameron’s mum to explain why his behaviour may be changing and how to monitor his new difficulties at home. In addition to this, Isobel agreed to liaise with school to help Cameron return to school.
Initially Cameron was able to return to school on a part time, reduced timetable and completed half days to help monitor his fatigue. Over the next 6 months, he began to attend school for full days and could settle back into a routine but soon Cameron’s family reported further changes in his attention and concentration levels, fatigue, anxiety and behaviour. Cameron’s mother says “it is pretty hard to see the change in your child and understand what you are feeling, it’s like a different version of Cameron now and we didn’t know who he was going to be”. To help support Cameron’s new difficulties, Isobel organised a meeting at Cameron’s primary school and delivered a school awareness session to staff who supported Cameron there.
Whilst Cameron had been doing well in his primary school, the summer holidays approached along with the transition to secondary school. Several transition meetings were organised with Cameron’s new secondary school to share relevant information and allow Cameron’s mum to discuss any potential difficulties. Before the new academic year started, a school awareness session was delivered to the staff at Cameron’s new school to aid his transition into Year 7.
Isobel also ran a family awareness session for Cameron and his family during the summer holidays. This enabled the wider family to understand Cameron’s brain injury in more depth and put support strategies into place to aid Cameron at home. In September, Cameron was able to transition successfully into his mainstream secondary school.
Isobel is in regular contact with Cameron’s family and school and continues to support them with their ABI journey. Cameron’s mum says “without the support of the Child Brain Injury Trust, we wouldn’t have got anything done – you don’t just support Cameron, you support us all”.