An 11-year-old girl tragically suffered a stroke while laughing with her friends at school and was unable to recognize her mother in the hospital.
Lily Biggs was 11 in 2019 when she was lining up with her friends at her school in Adelaide, Australia, giggling as any school child would.
As reported by the Daily Mail, doctors, and school staff were left confused when the seemingly healthy 11-year-old suddenly collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital.
Her mother, Melissa, raced to the hospital after the school had let her know what had happened, and doctors believed that the young girl had suffered a stroke.
On her way to the hospital, Melissa called her mother Shazza, who lived five minutes away. When the concerned mom arrived she found her in tears.
Melissa told the Mail: "The lady from the front office of Lily's school said she was having a laughing fit. They were lining up to go into class and Lily just started laughing.
"[The] teachers told her to calm down, but she couldn't stop laughing and then the next minute she just fell backward, collapsed and they and they said that she stopped talking. She couldn't move."
After Lily underwent tests for hours, Melissa was finally able to see her daughter but heartbreakingly, the 11-year-old had no idea who her mother was.
"I wasn't really aware that children could suffer strokes," Melissa said. "I just thought plainly adults had strokes. So when Lily had her first stroke, it was a complete shock to me that this had happened."
After Lily failed to recognize her mother, her father burst into tears as she was also unable to recognize the rest of the family and had no idea what sports teams they followed.
Doctors decided to keep the 11-year-old in for a few more days in order to keep an eye on her, and it was then that she suffered a second stroke.
After Lily suffered a second stroke, doctors gave her a diagnosis of cerebral vasculitis, which is extremely rare for young people to have, as it usually affects men over 50.
The now 15-year-old attends school part-time, but unfortunately is still unable to use her right arm and struggles with some aspects of speech.
Despite this, the keen dancer still managed to impress on the dance floor and compete against able-bodied teens in competitions.
Melissa owns a dance school which means Lily gets to practice every day and has even won a "best on floor" competition despite her lack of mobility on her right-hand side.
The 15-year-old suffers from epilepsy which also affects her dancing, as well as her short-term memory being impacted by the two strokes.
"At the moment, we're pretty much unable to tell what the future is going to be like for her. We're just taking things day by day," Melissa said.
Lily's progression has been remarkable, as she is now able to converse after being unable to speak following her second stroke, and her mother has credited the support from her friends and family.
"It'll be four years next months, I wonder and Lily does too what would she be like now if she never had a stroke," Melissa concluded.
