7-year-old Bailey McQuiggan had just been at school when he nearly died of a brain hemorrhage.
The day had begun like any other. Bailey went to school and then went with his friends out on the school playground during lunchtime. It was there that Baily accidentally crashed into one of his fellow classmates and hit his head on the ground – hard.
The school immediately took him in to see the school nurse, who then called Bailey’s mother, Michelle, to have her pick up her son.
“I went straight down [to the school] and they had called an ambulance,” Michelle remembered. The school assumed Bailey had suffered a concussion and didn’t want to take any risks, but Michelle immediately sensed that there was something more serious at hand.
“When I got there Bailey was really sleepy and he started being sick. … I was told I couldn’t go in the ambulance with him because they didn’t know if he was going to make it,” she said.
By the time Michelle got the hospital in her own car, Bailey had already been sent in for an emergency surgery.
Doctors discovered that Bailey’s seemingly innocuous bump on the head had actually caused a massive brain hemorrhage. If they didn’t operate immediately, he would lose his life.
Thankfully, the doctors were able to act quickly enough and Bailey is on schedule to make a full recovery.
“When I was finally able to see him it was such a relief,” Michelle admitted. “He was very sleepy but he managed to say ‘Hello, Mum.’”
Bailey has since returned home and received many get well cards from his friends at school. Although doctors had to shave half of his head for his emergency surgery, Bailey couldn’t be less bothered by it.
“Bailey loves the funky hairstyles that are fashionable at the moment so he quite likes the fact that he has got half his head shaved and he is going to be able to go to school like that,” Michelle laughed.
She’s relieved that her son has so quickly returned to his spunky, energetic self and now is taking time to warn other parents of the hidden dangers on the schoolyard. “It was just an accident, but it is a warning to other children what can happen. You tell your kids to be careful but you just don't expect something like this from a bump in the playground.”
