Family is battling back after
MUM Sam Brand feared she would lose her precious son when he was struck down with a very rare blood disorder as a baby.
But more heartache was to follow when her husband Mark almost died after a brain aneurysm and stroke.
At one point Sam had no choice but to travel to two different wards of the hospital so she could see them both during the same visiting hours.
“It was horrendous.
“I honestly thought I was going to lose them both,” said the 29-year-old.
“I just thought my life couldn’t get any worse.
“I felt like my world was crashing down. I kept on asking why this was happening my family.”
In 2012 Sam’s son Ryan fell seriously ill just before his christening, when he was eight months old.
After an appointment with her GP she was told to travel to Ystrad Mynach Hospital where a nurse quickly spotted Ryan’s symptoms.
“That nurse saved my son’s Sam said.
“They couldn’t do proper bloods on him as he was so young but they managed to get a tiny amount off him for analysis.
“Five minutes later we were told to get Ryan to A&E straight away.”
At the University Hospital of Wales (UHW), in Cardiff, Ryan was diagnosed with Diamond-Blackfan anemia, a condition where the bone marrow fails to make enough red blood cells.
The function of red cells is to carry oxygen to the body’s tissues and without a suitable amount of them people can feel incredibly fatigued, weak, and can even die.
“When I was told he had the condition my heart just sank. I couldn’t stop crying,” Sam said.
“Every three weeks we had to go to hospital for blood transfusions to keep him alive.”
Sam, from Caerphilly, said Ryan needed steroids and treatments to flush iron out of his body, which could have led to liver failure. “He also suffered life,” with the infection staphylococcus in July 2016, was very sick and left fighting for his life in high dependency.” Poorly Ryan has also needed to pay regular visits to St Mary’s Hospital in London for specialist treatment.
“He has been really brave throughout his treatment. He’s lived his life in hospital and has missed so much school,” she added.
“The nurses [at UHW] are fantastic. Any time we went to hospital they were there.” After five years Ryan underwent a bone marrow transplant when a suitable donor was found, but needed chemotherapy first.
“We did try his younger sister Chloe first, but she wasn’t a suitable match. But Ryan was so lucky. Two, maybe even three matches were found for him within a week.
“Even though he was only five years old we did try to explain what was going on and that he needed to stick by the rules of the hospital.”
After being placed in isolation keen swimmer Ryan was ready.
“Emotions were running high but Ryan was actually quite happy as the nurses made it feel like it was his birthday.
“He had presents and a card. They were fantastic.”
After the procedure, which lasted five hours, Ryan was incredibly weak and didn’t eat properly for many weeks. He also experienced nasty side effects such as blisters.
“Ryan lost a heck of a lot of weight. At one point I had to get protein shakes into his mouth using a syringe, which he hated,” Sam said. In 2014, when Ryan was still seriously ill, Sam’s husband Mark also came close to death when he collapsed as they entered hospital. “I remember him coming upstairs and complaining of a really bad headache,” Sam recalled. “About an hour later, despite taking some tablets, he said the pain was getting worse so he went for a cold shower.
“It was after the shower that I noticed the side of his face not moving properly.