A family is facing a race against time to raise £30,000 for treatment for a 17-month-old boy who woke up unable to walk, talk or eat due to a mystery illness. Doctors have been unable to explain why Carter Daley has practically reverted to being a newborn baby after being found face down by his mum, Alisha.
Carter has lost his vision and is being fed through a tube. For a time he was paralysed - and if he is to recover his only chance will be in the next seven months.
Experts have no idea if Carter will ever learn basic skills again, reports The Mirror. Carter's gran, Louise Cowman has launched a GoFundMe to raise £30,000 to get Carter lifeline therapy in America before his second birthday.
She said: "It's so heart-breaking to know that he literally lit up every room and he was just the happiest baby. He no longer says any words, he's fed on an NG tube so he can't swallow at the moment, he's lost his sight, and when he first came out of a coma he wasn't able to move.
"We were hoping that when he came round he would be the same Carter, the same boy and he's just not."
Dynamic Movement Intervention (DMI) Therapy will try to teach Carter basic skills again in the hope that his brain will pick it up and step in where any damaged parts are no longer working. But the intensive therapy which costs £30,000 is only available in America, and the family must get Carter there before he turns two, when his brain will no longer be as receptive to the treatment.
Louise said: "We have done our homework and found an intensive therapy which could help Carter regain some movement through Neuroplasticity. It's like teaching a new born how to do things, and to get a different part of the brain to learn how to do that.
"But it's a race against time because we understand from speaking to the nurses that once he turns two his brain will be less receptive to this kind of therapy."
Carter came down with tonsillitis in February this year. He suffered a febrile seizure and a month later developed a persistent cough which GPs prescribed antibiotics for.
Carter was intubated in hospital and in a coma for weeks (Image: Lou Cowman)
On April 12, Carter's mum noticed on the baby monitor that he was face down in his cot. Alisha found her son was unresponsive and had to perform CPR to keep him alive until the ambulance arrived.
Doctors performed CT scans and X-rays. They discovered he had pneumonia.
With his symptoms worsening he was placed into an induced coma to protect his brain. For weeks he lay in a coma and after a second MRI scan, his parents Alisha and Liam were given the news that Carter had suffered extensive neurological damage.
Louise said: "It's frustrating not knowing what's happened and why it's happened. His parents can't deal with it or process it emotionally. Once you get a diagnosis you think 'that explains that' and then you deal with it.
"But when you've got no answers its really difficult, you're grieving a baby that is still here. You're grieving the loss of your boy but he's still here in body, but not here in mind, he's not the same child.
"You have a perfectly baby that is passing all his milestones, laughing and playing, and then overnight you are left with a totally different child."
On the GoFundMe , Carter's devastated parents wrote: "No one can ever begin to comprehend grieving a child you have lost forever while they are physically here, pure and utter torture, we are completely heartbroken.
"We continue to pray, surrounding his room with love, happiness, memories and comforts for our beautiful boy who lit up the room with his smile and hope that he can continue to do so in the future."
