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Milly Johnson set to have
major brain surgery

Exclusive

by Sarah Shaffi

For the Johnson family, everything was normal when little Milly
went to bed on a Sunday night.

By the next morning she was showing signs of an illness which,
just a few days later, would lead to her having a stroke at the age
of two.

The stroke damaged Milly's brain and caused her to develop
epilepsy so severe she can have 10 fits a day.

Later this month she will have an operation known as a
hemispherectomy, when surgeons will disconnect the left half of her
brain, where she had the stroke, from the right in a bid to stop
the fits.

The events of the past 18 months have stunned Milly's parents
Maria and Simon, of Peal Close, Hoo.

Maria, an administration assistant before becoming Milly's
full-time carer, said: "We didn't have any idea such a young child
could have a stroke. It's unbelievable. One minute you have got a
normal, healthy child, the next this happens."

The day Milly showed signs of illness are etched in the couple's
minds. Maria, who is pregnant with the couple's second child, said:
"Milly was two years and one month old, and it was Sunday, October
4, 2009.

"She kept waking up through the night, which was unusual, and
had a raging temperature. In the morning I noticed her legs had
tiny little spots on them."

Over the next three days a series of trips to
the doctor and the hospital followed, until eventually Milly was
admitted for monitoring.



As the rash spread, the toddler was diagnosed with Kawasaki
Disease, a rare illness which causes a high temperature and
symptoms including a rash and dry, cracked lips.

Left untreated it can cause complications and in one per cent of
cases is fatal.

Maria said: "The night she was admitted, she was talking and
said a word I couldn't understand. I asked her to say it again, and
it came out garbled. After that she didn't speak again for a
month."

It was a few days later, when Simon and Maria noticed the right
side of Milly's mouth was drooping, that doctors ordered a scan and
Milly's stroke was confirmed. According to Great Ormond Street
Hospital, only 100 children a year have a stroke.

Milly spent the next three-and-a-half weeks at London's Evelina
Children's Hospital and for the next six months had intensive
therapy to help her walk and talk again.

Simon said: "She can still only use single words and she'll
never use her right hand properly. It was upsetting after
everything that happened to see her have to start again."

Milly, who goes to Little Stars nursery in Hoo, suffered another
setback when she developed epilepsy in January 2010. She now wears
a helmet at all times to protect herself from injury when she has a
fit.

Maria said: "She gets upset and angry after the seizures, which
get her down. When she fits, she falls wherever she is standing or
sitting. Initially it was a struggle to leave her in a room in case
she had a seizure."