A family’s heart-rending vigil as son, 11, is brain damaged after asthma attack

Geraint Richards pictured with his father Chris, mum Julie, and his sister Kayley, 18

The family of a Tondu schoolboy who has been left brain damaged after suffering a near-fatal asthma attack have told how their world has been turned upside down by the “routine” condition he’d lived with all his life.

Eleven-year-old Geraint Richards suffered an attack during the short walk home from school on January 31.

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 in to cardiac arrest – during which a medical team battled for 14 minutes to revive him.

The terrifying ordeal, which lasted hours and during which his parents Chris and Julie could only look on helplessly, left the Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen pupil brain damaged.

'He’s the same boy, same memories, but trapped in a body he can’t move': A family’s heart-rending vigil as son, 11, is brain damaged after asthma attack

Geraint Richards pictured with his father Chris, mum Julie, and his sister Kayley, 18

The family of a Tondu schoolboy who has been left brain damaged after suffering a near-fatal asthma attack have told how their world has been turned upside down by the “routine” condition he’d lived with all his life.

Eleven-year-old Geraint Richards suffered an attack during the short walk home from school on January 31.

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 in to cardiac arrest – during which a medical team battled for 14 minutes to revive him.

The terrifying ordeal, which lasted hours and during which his parents Chris and Julie could only look on helplessly, left the Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen pupil brain damaged.

 

He spent three weeks in intensive care at the University Hospital of Wales, a further week on the high dependency unit, and has been on the Land Ward at the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital ever since.

His parents, who have barely left his bedside and slept on the ward and in family accommodation since the fateful day, say their son faces a long road of rehabilitation and therapy.

They say they have also had to come to terms with knowing that their boy as he once was is gone for good.

“Geraint has always suffered with asthma and it was under control,” said dad Chris, a 44-year-old machine operator at Bridgend Ford.

“He was under a consultant and he was really pleased with him. In fact, the week before this happened we saw him and discussed the possibility of him being discharged from his regular check-ups because we were worried about him missing school now he’s in comp.

“The day it happened was just a normal day – he went to school fine. He rang my wife at about 1pm saying he felt a bit ill and she said she finished work at 2pm and if he still felt ill to ring 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 and his chest was tight and that he’d run out of his pump.

“It’s only a short walk from our home on Glan Y Nant, 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 that it was bad so she took him to the nearby surgery where she works.”

Geraint pictured with his father Chris

Geraint was put on a nebuliser but when it had little effect, he was rushed to hospital in Bridgend.

“They tried back-to-back nebulisers, an injection into the vein and something else that they say is fail-safe and works every time,” added Chris. “Only it didn’t work.”

When Geraint’s condition failed to improve by 11.30pm an intensive care team was called in to transfer him to Cardiff, but it was then that he went into cardiac arrest.

It took a further five hours to stabilise him before he could be transferred, and by then the attack had life-changing consequences for Geraint.

A team of brain injury specialists from Tadworth in Nottingham were due to assess the youngster on Monday and his parents and devoted older sister Kayley, 18, are hopeful that he will eventually regain some mobility and speech.

But they are preparing themselves for a long and difficult road ahead.

“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,” added Chris.

 “He’s communicating by blinking and making noises, but we hope that one day he will get his speech back.

“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.