Stroke after chickenpox: Milton (6) can walk again | Life & Knowledge
When Milton (6) suffered a stroke, nobody knew whether he would survive. Now the little boy can even walk again.
Milton Lundh Svensson from Klippan (Sweden) actually only had a harmless chickenpox infection without symptoms. But on November 29, 2023, his father Christoffer Svensson had to pick him up early from preschool. Parents and educators thought he had a Gastrointestinal infectionBut suddenly the boy started having cramps and had to go to the hospital. The child had a stroke at the age of five!
Difficult months followed for the Family“We didn't know if he would survive. The doctors didn't know either,” his mother Sofie Lundh told BILD in July. Milton made it, although he was paralyzed on one side. He had problems with his balance and could no longer speak.
Until four weeks ago, Milton was still dependent on a wheelchair
Milton is romping around on the playground again
Now things are finally looking up: Milton can walk again!
This is what the Swedish newspaper SVT reports. “It happened from one day to the next,” says his mother. “He is still a bit wobbly and sometimes falls, but we have to hold him back so that he doesn't get too tired.” In July, his father shared a video of his first walking successes on Facebook:
Milton took his first steps around four weeks ago. Since then, things have been getting a little better every day. He can now even slide, swing, dig and romp around again. The boy still wears braces on his legs most of the time. But the relief of no longer having to sit still is immense.
Milton is still a little unsteady on his feet, but no longer needs a wheelchair
Stroke in children – how dangerous is it?
Only 300 to 400 people suffer from Children in Germany a strokeAccording to the University Children's Hospital in Münster, ten percent of cases can be traced back to chickenpox.
Experts believe that a stroke can develop weeks or months after an infection. The chickenpox virus causes inflammation of the blood vessel walls, which narrow and result in a heart attack.
Since 2004, there has been a general Vaccination recommendation against the chickenpox virus. Previously, there were about 750,000 infections annually, but since then the numbers have dropped significantly, and in 2019 there were only about 22,000 cases of chickenpox. After that, the numbers fell again significantly to less than 12,000 annually due to the corona pandemic.