Indigo's Story 

 It all started August bank Holiday 2019. We were enjoying a short break in St Ives, Cornwall, we had been there since the 19th and everything had been great. The weather had stayed nice, and we were enjoying life.

 Saturday morning came and everything seemed good, then as the day went on we noticed Indigo was reluctant to use her left arm, and it looked like she'd slept funny on it. We decided to let her play and see if things improved. Saturday evening came and Indigo went to bed exhausted from a day full of playing. Sunday morning, we woke and started to get Indigo ready for the day. We noticed she wasn't or couldn’t move her left arm or left leg and the left side of her face had drooped slightly. We tried to make her crawl to us but she just fell and couldn’t lift herself. We immediately called for an ambulance as we knew something wasn’t right. On arrival the paramedic examined her and said everything was fine, then as they were packing up she had a mini seizure and the left hand side of her face dropped further. We shouted the crew in as they were packing up their car, they then told us we had to get her to the hospital ASAP, as they were in a rapid response vehicle, they could not take her, so we had to take her and follow them to Truro, Royal Cornwall Hospital A&E.

 Once in the hospital, we saw the triage nurse, who again gave Indigo a clean bill of health, but due to what we had witnessed decided to let her see the senior doctor on duty. As we waited indigo had another attack, this time fortunately for us the Doctor was walking past us and witnessed it, he immediately requested she was admitted and sent for an emergency MRI scan. During this time she had suffered 3 major seizures. Several scans were carried out and two unidentified masses were identified, one on the right side of her brain and another of the left. They then carried out an echo scan of her heart and noticed abnormalities there also. During this time Indigo's condition worsened and she had to be placed in the ICU wing and needed sedating slightly as her seizures were happening regularly and getting worse each time. The staff at Royal Cornwall Hospital decided this was more serious a condition than they were equipped to deal with and started the ball rolling to get Indigo transported to Bristol Royal Hospital or Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool. Consultants at all these hospitals were contacted and all spoke via video link as to the best course of treatment and what the root cause was, after several hours it was decided to get Indigo transported to Liverpool via Air Ambulance.

 At 11:30 on the 26th August the Air Ambulance took off With Indigo and Mum to take her to Alder Hey. 2 1/2 hours and 2 fuel stops later Indigo and Mum arrived at Alder Hey, Indigo was taken immediately to the high dependency unit where she was given medication, fluids and observation. Indigo underwent several more MRI scans and Lumbar Punctures, and it was discovered Indigo had suffered from several strokes. The strokes had been caused by a viral infection (Chicken Poxs) causing her own immune system to attack Indigo's brain stems and create clots within her brain, these had broken free causing the strokes and seizures. Indigo Spent a further 6 1/2 weeks in Alder Hey getting the treatment she needed until she was well enough to go home, she still attends Alder Hey and continues on medication at this time. We believe that without the Children's Air Ambulance Indigo may not have survived,  and would not have been able to receive the vital specialist treatment she needed so urgently if she had stayed in Royal Cornwall Hospital or travelled to Liverpool by Ambulance. Due to the Children's Air ambulance service and the team on board that day, Indigo is living a normal life and is a very happy toddler.