Metin was a typical 12 year old boy who loves his sport especially rugby and tennis. The day before his 13th birthday he complained of a headache to his dad on his way to school for his early morning sports academy session. He quickly started slurring his words and had weakness down his right side. His dad took him to Queens Hospital A&E, where they admitted him straight away and started doing tests for Meningitis or a stroke. It was discovered he had a brain haemorrhage and had to be put in an induced coma and transported by blue light to Great Ormond Street Hospital for life saving brain surgery.

Metin as the Active Boy he was, Thank you to Anthony Aduhene Photography for the fantastic pictures below.

Metin arrived at Great Ormond Street at noon as was in theatre by 12:15pm, he was going to be critical for 48 hours but the doctors were hopeful they had caught the bleed early and should be able to wake him after the 48 hours. The operation last 3 hours and they managed to remove 50% of his bleed. His haemorrhage was caused by a condition called AVM (arteriovenous malformation). The AVM was something he was born with and during his operation it was discovered he had 2 AVM's.

Metin on his 13th birthday in intensive care.

The 48 hours came and went but the doctors wanted to keep him asleep for longer as he had a lot of brain pressure, during this time we were informed when they would try and wake him up but it could take about a week due to the high levels of medication they had to give him. They were also not sure what problems the bleed could of caused until he was awake. The possible complications would be physical, speech and or personality changes to name a few.

In total Metin was in an induced coma for 15 days and in the intensive care ward for 3 weeks while he withdrew from the drugs they gave him to keep him asleep. (They had to give him some adult medications due to his size).

Metin with the therapy dog.

Metin was in the intensive card ward for a total of 18 days. He was then moved to Koala ward which is a specialist ward for children with brain problems.

He had to have daily physiotherapy and they helped him to learn how to walk and use the stairs again.

When on Koala ward he lost his eye sight briefly but this was down to the withdrawal.

The hospital was going to send Metin to the London Hospital to carry on his rehab, but through his determination and the care and support he received from the excellent staff at GOSH especially Jude he came home.

In total Metin was in GOSH for a month. He had another operation in June using gamma ray surgery as it was to risky to have a standard op as it was to near to the part of the brain that controls speech.

Having never had to deal with such issue's Metins family were completely unaware of the level of dedication and care that all the staff, doctors, nurses and consultants at Great Ormond Street Hospital have and do. Metin's family will always be internally grateful to GOSH.

So please give what you can as every little will help.