8-Year-Old Boy Tells Mom Head Hurts; Doctors Say He Had A Stroke

HOPEWELL, VA — When a third-grader in Hopewell, Virginia, told his his mother he had a headache, she did what many moms would do: She gave him ibuprofen, an over-the-counter painkiller. Minutes later, he screamed and cried for help. It wasn't until further medical tests that doctors discovered he'd suffered something typically associated with people decades his elder: a stroke.

Tiffany Curry told WTVR-TV she decided to take her 8-year-old son Jamarion Bryant to the hospital when he couldn't move the left side of his face. Her son, a student at Dupont Elementary School, was also turning pale. He was taken to a hospital on Wednesday, Jan. 3.

In a post on the crowdfunding website You Caring, the author says tests revealed a blood clot and he was rushed to an intensive care unit at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. There was an arterial venous malformation, or AVM, which caused the blood clot to expand. Doctors said he was critically ill and might die.

Two days later, Jamarion underwent a 12-hour brain surgery to remove the malformation and blood clot, the post said. The AVM was three times larger than expected and started bleeding when it was removed.

"This caused severe bleeding and shifting of the brain," the post said. "It was determined that he suffered a stroke that caused the entire left side of his body to become unresponsive."

Dr. Mark Marinello, medical director of the pediatric ICU at the hospital, told WTVR-TV an AVM is similar to an aneurysm. An atypical group of weakened blood vessels burst, leaving Jamarion with hemorrhaging inside his head.

“It’s a life-threatening issue that many patients don’t survive,” Marinello told the outlet.

Curry told the outlet she thinks she's cried every day since the nightmare began.

“Just watching him struggle is hard," she said. "If I didn’t stay on top of him and watch him, he could have easily passed away in the bed.”

Jamarion currently cannot speak and feels weak on his left side, but doctors think he'll survive and be able to recover many functions that he lost. There will still be some permanent effects, Marinello told the outlet.

The family seeks donations to help cover medical costs, as well as travel and household expenses as the family is out of work. So far, the post has raised more than $1,400 and seeks $50,000. You can donate here.

Hopewell, which has a population of about 23,000 people, is about 18 miles south of Richmond in Prince George County.

Numbers associated with Tiffany Curry and Lanard Ore, the boy's stepfather, weren't immediately reachable. Patch has reached out to the hospital and the creator of the You Caring post and will update when we hear back.

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