Teenager has gone from skull removal to incredible recovery and now the setting up of a charity – here’s the story of NeuroGuy A year after part of his skull was removed due to an infection that shifted his brain, an 18-year-old is now celebrating his incredible recovery from a life-changing illness by setting up a charity to help others going through similar experiences.Guy Muscat Barron lived a childhood of illness, including over 20 cases of pneumonia.But just as he was getting on with life, gaining strength, practising sports and was “the best he has ever been” – to the point that he went on his first “dream” family holiday to Iceland – a sinus infection developed into Encephalitis and he was rushed to hospital in a critical state.His parents, Jo and Vince Muscat Barron, recall the harrowing days leading to his admission, wondering if they could have taken further action and reacted differently to what at first appeared to be a head cold and gastric flu, but seemed strange and worrying nonetheless.They had already been reassured by three doctors, but when their son started forgetting things, swaying to walk towards them with rolling eyes, and then burning up and being unresponsive, they got scared and the boy – yellow and vomiting – was taken to hospital again. But this time, before they knew it, he was undergoing an emergency craniotomy to remove the infection that had travelled up and shifted his swelling brain. Muscat Barron fought for his life – a modified version of it when he came to, days later, to face a new reality.His skull was missing, the left side of his body was paralysed and he was unable to communicate. He had miraculously survived the operation, but the outcome was unknown.Jo Muscat Barron addressing guests at an event launching the NeuroGuy charity.It has since been a year of recovery through physio, occupational and speech therapy and so many rehabilitation services to tap into that his mother wants everyone in need to be aware of them. The mental health aspect was not to be overlooked either, she said about Guy’s character-changing experience. His head was open for around six months and susceptible to infection until the surgeons refitted his harvested bone and covered it with skin that was so tightly stretched over it that he had to withstand that post-op agony too.“I suffer from some memory loss and lose my train of thought most times. I often zone out and I am unable to do most sports I used to do,” said Guy, who was brought up in a sporty family, with a personal trainer and gym instructor for a mother.But he has been “stoic”, and when his surgeons told him he could never play rugby or train in boxing again, he simply replied that he had always wanted to take up golf.It is this resilience and positive attitude that his parents now want to celebrate with the new charity platform.Jo reproached herself in her darkest days, but she wants to “switch things up” and not let herself go
Am semnat pentru băiatul nostru: părinții își amintesc traumele bolii care le-a schimbat viața
