When Hudson Cromwell fell during a football game in the backyard with his two brothers it almost seemed like he was suffering from a mild concussion.
When the then-seven-year-old boy came back into his Lemoore, California home crying in October 2012, his father Andrew assumed his son was just tired – but then his eyes started rolling into the back of his head.
His mother Kerry, who’s a nurse, had a feeling something more serious was happening to Hudson.
They took him to a trauma center, where doctors were relaxed, initially assumed he had suffered a concussion.
But Kerry pushed them to diagnose him even after a CAT scan uncovered nothing.
Eventually, an MRI revealed the worst: her son had suffered a stroke.
The family is now sharing their story to raise awareness about pediatric strokes, and detailing how Kerry’s instinct may have saved her now-12-year-old son Hudson’s life.
Kerry Cromwell’s instincts led to her son Hudson’s stroke diagnosis in October 2012
The stroke left Hudson unable to fully swallow, speak and fully use the right side of his body
Hudson’s father Andrew (pictured in December 2017 with his wife and four children) said Hudson’s motor functions has greatly improved over the past five years. (left to right: Chase, 16, Hudson, 12, Kerry, 39, Andrew, 41, Madeleine, 11, Payten, 14)
When Hudson came into the house crying after playing with his siblings Chase, now 16, and Payten, now 14, Andrew’s initial thought was that his son was tired.
‘I was thinking “here’s a typical seven-year-old kid who’s tired and done for the day,”‘ Andrew, now 41, told Daily Mail Online.
He also wasn’t fazed when his son fell over while he bent down to tie his shoes. But when Andrew ran over to him, he noticed Hudson’s body felt weak.
Andrew became concerned when, after he carried Hudson over to the couch, his son starting falling unconscious.
Andrew said his son nearly died 72 hours after suffering a stroke due to brain swelling (pictured: Hudson in 2017)
‘He went from crying to having his eyes rolling the back of his head and not speaking,’ he said.
Andrew’s initial thought was that his son was suffering from a concussion – the most common type of traumatic brain injury in football.
Kerry, now 39, arrived home five minutes later and when she saw her son, she immediately called 911.
When EMS arrived they decided to drive Hudson to a trauma center in Fresno, California.
There, doctors assumed Hudson had a concussion since he was playing football and had fallen right before his symptoms appeared.
But somehow, Kerry knew her son was suffering from something more than just a concussion – which is characterized by headache, confusion, lack of coordination, sleepiness and excessive fatigue.
Andrew said Hudson is doing ‘pretty awesome’ and is still a lively spirited kid (pictured: Hudson with his mother and his older brother Chase)
But doctors couldn’t find anything else wrong with her son.
They performed a CAT scan that didn’t reveal anything else wrong with Hudson.
But Kerry pushed for a diagnosis since her son’s symptoms – weakness on the right side of his body and inability to speak – were not those of a concussion.
‘My wife said “does that look like a concussion to you? These are not concussion symptoms,”‘ Andrew said.
After the MRI scan, the doctors at the local Fresno California hospital noticed bright white spots in Hudson’s brain, indicating he may have suffered a stroke.
‘They said “this looks like a stroke, but that doesn’t happen in kids,”‘ Andrew recalled.
The doctors sent Hudson to a pediatric stroke center at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Children’s Hospital to receive specialized treatment due to the puzzling MRI images.
The doctors at this hospital requested an additional MRI the next morning and confirmed that Hudson had in fact suffered a stroke.
Although Andrew and Kerry knew Hudson was suffering from something more serious than a concussion, they were shocked by the diagnosis since this is so rare in kids.
They agreed to monitor Hudson for three days to monitor the swelling in his brain – the organ’s response to a stroke – to make sure it doesn’t swell so much that it kills him.
In the meantime, doctors tried to figure out why Hudson suffered a stroke at such a young age.
They initially thought it was a result of Hudson playing football, but then they realized that one of the main arteries in his brain was malformed and that this stroke would’ve happened sooner or later.
‘We did suspect football because it was the easiest thing to blame,’ Andrew said.
After Hudson spent 72 hours in the hospital, Andrew believed they were ‘out of the woods’ and he was in the recovery period as it seemed his brain and swelling had stabilized.
But moments later alarms went off because he had too much pressure in the brain.
Doctors performed a CAT scan which revealed that Hudson’s brain has expanded to the point that it shut down his optic nerves and disrupted his breathing.
Doctors opted to perform a surgery where they removed half of Hudson’s skill to allow the brain to swell without impacting his other functions.
Andrew said Hudson still has a hard time controlling his right hand after the stroke (Pictured: Hudson in 2014)
Andrew and Kerry tried their best to remain positive through this tough time.
‘We are people of faith,’ Andrew said. ‘We were trying to be encouraged, trying to be full of faith, but also face the reality that this boy might die.’
Hudson was in a coma for the next 10 days, and he gradually woke up when the pressure in his head lessened.
Andrew and Kerry were grateful that Hudson survived this ordeal, but they also wondered how much their child have changed through this ordeal.
The stroke had made the right side of Hudson’s body weak. He wasn’t able to walk, talk or use his right hand.
When Hudson woke up, he couldn’t talk, sit up and swallow.
He was later transferred to an in-patient rehabilitation department where he worked on swallowing, walking, speech as well as other tasks.
Andrew said Hudson made a lot of progress in his motor functions and he can do ‘everything his siblings do.’
But he still has trouble using his right hand – he doesn’t have control of his individual fingers and he has a hard time opening and closing his hand.
‘He’s a kid,’ Andrew said. ‘He wasn’t to just go, go, go and doesn’t want to think about the hand that doesn’t work.’
However, overall, Andrew said Hudson is doing ‘pretty awesome.’