A four-year-old was hospitalized for two months after suffering a stroke — which was likely triggered by a common childhood illness she’d picked up months before.
Olivia Elliot, now 5, woke up vomiting and complaining of a headache in June 2025 but her mother, Rebecca, 31, initially thought she had just picked up a bug.
But when the tot toppled on one side and couldn’t grip her mother’s hand, she was rushed to hospital and her condition rapidly deteriorated.
After CT scans, MRI scans, blood tests and a lumbar puncture, doctors confirmed the four-year-old had suffered a stroke.
They discovered severe inflammation in one of the main arteries supplying her neck, which specialists believe had been triggered by the chickenpox virus she contracted in Christmas 2024.
Olivia temporarily lost movement down the left side of her body, her speech became slurred and one side of her face drooped. She spent almost eight weeks in hospital before beginning the long road to recovery.
“I didn’t think children as young as four could have strokes,” Rebecca, who is from West Lothian, Scotland said.
“She had chickenpox in December, just before Christmas. She had lots of spots, but she wasn’t unwell, really. I thought we’d had an easy case.”
Olivia was born nine weeks premature and was later diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy after brain damage was detected as a baby.
Despite years of physiotherapy, Rebecca says Olivia’s determination helped her become increasingly independent.
“She’d worked so hard to get to where she was,” Rebecca said.
But shortly before Christmas, Olivia caught chickenpox. After making a full recovery, the family had no reason to think anything was wrong. Then, six months later, everything changed.
Rebecca remembers her husband waking her after finding Olivia being sick. Olivia had been throwing up clear liquid, which Rebecca thought was odd, and she started complaining of a headache.
The pair decided to stay at home for a “sick” day. But when Olivia couldn’t sit up on the sofa and kept falling onto her left side, Rebecca grew worried.
They decided to play darts, but Olivia, who is left-handed, couldn’t grab the dart with her left hand. Initially, Rebecca wondered if it was linked to Olivia’s cerebral palsy.
“I put my finger into her hand and said, ‘Can you grab Mummy’s hand?’ She couldn’t do it,” she said.
Rebecca called her business partner — whose speciality is brain injuries — and followed her advice to immediately take Olivia to the emergency room at St. John’s Hospital in Livingston.
While seeing the doctor, Rebecca remembers that Olivia had an “unexplainable episode” while sitting in her mother’s lap — but Rebecca knew something was wrong.
“I started screaming, ‘Something’s not right. Something’s happening to Olivia,’” she said.
As Olivia’s speech became slurred and one side of her face began to droop, she was transferred by blue-light ambulance to Edinburgh’s Royal Hospital for Children for specialist treatment.
The biggest shock came after Olivia woke from her MRI scan and could no longer move the left side of her body.
“Her face was so drooped. It was heart-breaking. She couldn’t eat or speak,” she said. “The most heart-breaking thing for me was looking at her. She didn’t look like Olivia at all.”
Doctors carried out extensive investigations before identifying inflammation in one of Olivia’s main brain arteries, which they linked to the earlier chickenpox infection. She began improving after starting antibiotics.
Doctors also reassured the family the stroke was unrelated to Olivia’s cerebral palsy, although her existing condition made rehabilitation more challenging.
Olivia remained in the hospital for eight weeks from June 29 until August 11, 2025 before finally returning home.
Just days after being discharged, Olivia started elementary school.
Though she didn’t need a wheelchair before her stroke, she relied on one at school while rebuilding her strength. Rebecca initially attended school as her one-on-one support.
Now five years old, Olivia is walking independently around the house and uses a walker at school. Rebecca believes her years of physiotherapy before the stroke helped prepare her for rehabilitation.
“Because she was already used to physio and hospital appointments, she fell into recovery really naturally,” she said. “She never complains. She just gets on with it. She’s such a tough kid. She’s such a happy kid.”
Rebecca also founded Olivia’s Steps Foundation to support families of children with disabilities.
“Our journey is such a sad one, but it’s led me to something so rewarding,” she said.
Her message to other parents is simpleL “Her main symptoms were vomiting and a headache. Which you don’t associate with strokes. Most people think of the ‘BE FAST’ analogy.”
BE FAST stands for standard stroke warning signs: balance, eyes, face, arms and speech — and time, the instruction to call emergency services immediately.
“Life is so busy and things are so easily skipped by. Strokes can happen at any age, at any time.
“In the first two weeks that she was in [the] hospital, we met two families who’s children had had strokes. One little boy was on his second. This is something that happens to people.
“If something doesn’t feel right, trust your instincts.”
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