13-year-old has stroke and 19 mini-strokes after fall on trampoline

13-year-old has stroke and 19 mini-strokes after fall on trampoline Ruben Shears needed urgent surgery and spent weeks in hospital recovering A 13-year-old had a stroke and 19 mini strokes after he fell on a trampoline. Ruben Shears, now 14, was found lying on his bathroom floor by his parents Andy and Chantal Shears a week after he had an accident on a trampoline . Ruben was shaking and the left side of his face was drooping - he couldn't move the left side of his body, and his speech was slurred. His parents called an ambulance and Ruben was rushed to the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro, where a CT scan showed he'd had a stroke. Medics said a tear inside a carotid artery, which takes blood to and from the brain, had caused a blood clot. They said the tear was likely the result of a high impact and Ruben remembered he'd hurt his neck when he fell badly on a trampoline about a week before, on June 4, 2025. Ruben then suffered nine mini strokes in two hours, before being transferred to Southmead hospital, in Bristol, for specialist treatment. He was given blood thinners and blood pressure medication, but suffered 10 more mini strokes two days later and had the clot removed in a four and a half hour operation. He spent five weeks in Bristol Royal Hospital for Children relearning how to move before coming home and continues to struggle with tiredness and slightly slower speech. Andy, a carpenter, said: "We're so lucky he's alive. It was horrendous, and such a shock. We were an absolute wreck. "We nearly lost him. It was like being brought to the edge of an abyss. You don't know what's going to be on the other side. We were overwhelmed with fear. As parents we always want to fix things, but in this situation you are powerless, all you can do is sit and hope and hold his hand. "It's absolutely amazing that he survived it. Doctors said a small blood vessel in his brain was feeding the right side from the left to keep him alive, they said that's a miracle." Ruben fell and hurt his neck while on a trampoline. The following week, he appeared to faint while on a cross-country run, but scans five days later showed he'd had a mini stroke. He stayed off school for the rest of the week with headaches and feeling faint. Andy and Chantal, a company director and trainee psychotherapist, found Ruben semi-conscious when they returned from walking the dog. Andy said: "I could see it was something neurological. I honestly thought it was meningitis because of the headaches and fainting." Ruben's brother's Jacob, 11, Toby, 12, and Seb, 17, waited with a friend while Andy and Chantal followed the ambulance to the hospital. Ruben's major stroke was caused by carotid arterial dissection, where blood gets caught between the layers in a torn artery lining and clots, causing a blockage called an occlusion. Around 400 children in the UK are diagnosed with a stroke each year, according to the Stroke Association website. Ruben's mini strokes, called transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs) were caused by bits of the clot breaking off and travelling to his brain. Warning signs of a stroke can include headaches, neck pain, and faintness. Carotid arterial dissections can be caused by high impact, including vigorous sports, or arterial wall weakness. A scan showed the blood vessel between the two halves of Ruben's brain was beginning to fail, and that a part of his brain was damaged. Ruben was given a thrombectomy - a camera and tiny tools were inserted through his femoral artery in his thigh and travelled along it to his neck to remove blood clots and put a two-inch stent to strengthen his damaged carotid artery. The main clot was 2.5 centimetres long, and seven smaller clots broke off during the operation and one had to be removed from his brain. When he woke he had no movement on his left, but two days later Andy was woken by Ruben's left hand squeezing his. "It was such an emotional moment," Andy said. Ruben had to lie flat for ten days, then did five weeks of rehab before going home. He has full movement back, but tires very easily and can't do his sports as intensely as he did. Andy, who shared the story via Sell Us Your Story, said: "We honestly can't thank the medical teams enough. "I watch him playing with his brothers and feel so lucky. This has really woken me up to how lucky we are to have the NHS. This is such a strange injury - apparently it's very common in golfers. "I tore myself up with parent guilt - I've always pushed them to do sport. You think you're doing the right thing by them but you just never know what's going to happen. Ruben loves his sport and is very competitive. "I think that competitive nature helped him with his recovery because he's good at setting goals for himself to meet. It blows my mind how fully he has recovered, he's amazing! We have a strong faith as a family, and prayed together throughout this, and that really helped to get us through."