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Through her advocacy, Ms Banks not only found that she\u2019s not alone in her experience with Emma, but there was a glaring inequality between adults\u2019 treatment for stroke and children\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren who have a stroke postnatally or in their early childhood would go to emergency departments and often be waiting days or weeks for a stroke diagnosis, and by that stage the damage is done,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want equality in care in the acute clinical setting, and for children to be treated like an adult who\u2019s had a stroke in terms of timely response, access to treatment, care and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
Ms Banks said she is also advocating for the language used by doctors to change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all get given this really grim prognosis for our children and it brings you to your knees, but a lot of the time it\u2019s not true,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
According to the Stroke Foundation, about 600 Australian children have a stroke each year, with approximately one third of all cases occurring in children less than one year old.<\/p>\n
Fifty to 85 per cent of stroke survivors will be left with long-term problems including seizures, physical disability, speech or learning difficulties.<\/p>\n
The advisory group plans to meet four times a year to inform the Stroke Foundation\u2019s activities and projects, providing valuable insight to improve childhood stroke survivors\u2019 quality of care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WHEN Dee Banks gave birth to her daughter, Emma, she had no idea she had suffered a stroke in utero. It wasn\u2019t until she noticed Emma wasn\u2019t developing as fast as other children in her mother\u2019s group that she sought doctor\u2019s advice. When describing her situation, she was told she was simply overreacting, a paranoid […]<\/p>\n