4-year-old Rowan is healing after multiple strokes from a rare cause
Rowan Wareham was in the bathtub on April 9, 2023, when he began slurring his speech and experiencing arm and leg weakness. Rowan’s father, a police officer with EMT training, quickly recognized the signs as classic symptoms of a stroke. But Rowan – a 4-year-old – is hardly a typical stroke victim.
Pediatric strokes are rare, affecting only 1 out of 100,000 children a year in the U.S. In cases with children as young as Rowan, it’s common for parents to assume the symptoms are caused by other factors.
“There was one instance where he was really dizzy helping me plow the driveway outside,” said John Wareham, Rowan’s father. “But then he would feel better the next day. He had a few headaches, or he suddenly felt really hot. All these individual things that wouldn’t automatically make you think ‘stroke,’ but collectively now, they make sense.”
The Warehams didn’t know it at the time, but Rowan was suffering from ‘mini-strokes,’ also known as transient ischemic attacks (TIAs). A TIA is a temporary blockage of blood flow in the brain that may last only a few minutes and typically does not cause any lasting damage. However, these are often signs of a larger stroke to come.
That stroke arrived on April 9, as John was giving Rowan a bath. The family rushed him to the emergency department at M Health Fairview Northland Medical Center for care.
Rapid action improved Rowan’s chances
At the emergency department, a CT scan revealed that Rowan had experienced not one but several small strokes in his brain.
Because of his previous medical training, John knew how important it is for stroke victims to get treatment within the first hour that symptoms appear, which is known as the “golden hour.” Getting care within this timeframe offers a better chance for survival and greatly reduces the person’s risk of long-lasting brain damage caused by the stroke.
When a stroke occurs, part of the brain’s blood supply is blocked either by a blood clot or a blood vessel bursting. This can lead to lasting brain damage, long-term disability, or in the worst situations – death.
Realizing Rowan would need advanced care, the family was confident about going to M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital, knowing they would receive the best-possible care from our multidisciplinary team of pediatric specialists.
Among our experts was Amanda Moen, MD, an M Health Fairview pediatric neurologist who believes fast action from his parents made all the difference for Rowan.
“His parents did a great job of realizing, ‘Hey, this isn’t right,” said Moen, who is also an assistant professor with the University of Minnesota Medical School. “They knew enough, and they were paying attention. They didn’t wait to see if he would get better. They acted immediately, and that gave him a better chance at a good outcome.”
