A family discovered their baby boy had a "ticking time bomb" inside him days after returning from holiday. Lyndsey Rowe felt something wasn't right when she noticed Mason, who was nine months old at the time, wasn't crawling properly.
She said he had been his usual happy self during a trip to Haven Hafan y Môr Holiday Park in North Wales two days earlier. But, when they got home to Liverpool, Lindsey and Robert, Mason's dad, realised that their baby wasn't moving his right arm or leg and his face had fallen to one side.
Lyndsey told the Liverpool ECHO: "It was all of a sudden. A couple of days before we were in Haven. We'd gone on a little trip and he was crawling around, everything was perfectly fine. Within two days of coming home we realised he wasn't moving his right leg or right arm, and he couldn't close his right eye properly.
"We were sat on the floor together playing. When I went to move further away from him usually he would crawl to me, and he just lay down instead. He was trying to move towards me but only with his left arm.
Lyndsey said she thought Mason, now aged 16 months, was just being lazy at first until she realised his face was also "crooked" on one side. He was taken to Alder Hey Children's Hospital by his dad Robert, while Lyndsey stayed at home with their eldest son Leo, six.
Lyndsey said: "I was in a complete panic. I was trying my hardest not to cry because Leo was with me. As soon as we found out my mum was on a plane from Ireland straight away the next morning to be with our other little boy Leo, so I could go to the hospital."
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Following an MRI scan the family was told Mason had suffered a stroke as a result of abnormal blood vessels - called cavernomas - in his brain. Lyndsey and Mason's brother Leo have also previously suffered from seizures as a result of the condition, which can sometimes run in families.
Mason spent the following months in and out of hospital having MRI scans and CT scans before doctors were able to operate. In April he suffered from seven seizures in one day and was prescribed epilepsy medication.
With one cavernoma being in a more dangerous place than the other, Lyndsey said: "It wasn't a case of if to have it removed, it was a case of when. Doctors referred to it as a ticking time bomb - if it didn't get removed it would bleed badly and it could have paralysed him, or it could have killed him."
Mason underwent surgery on April 18, which was successful in removing the first cavernoma. The 16-month-old is set to undergo a second operation on May 18.
Lyndsey now wants to thank staff at Alder Hey Children's Hospital for helping to save Mason's life. The family will be taking part in a charity walk at Knowsley Safari Park on May 14, with all money raised via a fundraising page going to Alder Hey.
Lynsey said: "He's such an incredible baby. He was giggling and smiling ever since surgery. The day after his operation he was sat up eating Jaffa Cakes as if nothing had happened. We've brought him home and he's back crawling again, pulling himself up.
"When we've been [at Alder Hey] all the nurses, all the staff, are absolutely incredible. They make you feel so at home and comforted.
"There's a musician that goes around the wards with a guitar and sings to the kids. There's a dog that goes to visit them - you can just see how much of a difference it makes to those children, how much more comforted they feel. The neurosurgeons are unbelievable."
To visit the family's fundraising page for Alder Hey click here.
