Sporty teen 'lucky he's alive' after suffering stroke and 19 mini strokes following trampoline accident
An active teenager was found on the floor of the bathroom by his parents after suffering from a stroke and 19 mini strokes.
Ruben Shears was just 13 when his parents Andy and Chantal found him at their home on June 15 2025 shaking and with the left side of his face drooping, as well as being unable to move the left side of his body and having slurred speech.
After being taken to Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro in the UK by ambulance, a CT scan confirmed that Ruben, who is now 14, had had a stroke as a tear in a carotid artery, which takes the blood to and from the brain, with the tear leading to a blood clot.
Doctors deduced that the tear had been the result of an impact, with Ruben then recalling how on 4 June, 11 days prior to being found by his parents, he had fallen on an trampoline and injured his neck.
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His dad 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 is a sporty teenager with an active lifestyle who would spend eight hours every week doing sports including surfing, jujitsu, and basketball, and it's possible the injury could have resulted from these as well.
After suffering from nine mini strokes in two hours, called transient ischaemic attacks, Ruben was transferred over to Southmead hospital in Bristol where he could receive specialist treatment.
He would go on to have a further 10 mini strokes two days later, before surgeons were able to remove the clot over the course of an operation lasting four and a half hours.
Ruben would then spend five weeks recovering in Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.
He is home now, and has regained full movement, though still speaks slower and becomes tired more quickly.
During the surgery, doctors inserted a camera and tiny tools into Ruben's femoral artery, which then went to his neck and were able to remove the clot and fit a stent to strengthen the blood vessel.
The main clot itself was 2.5 centimetres long.
Ruben still didn't have movement in his left side after waking up, but two days after his surgery Andy was overjoyed when he was woken up by Ruben squeezing his hand with his left hand.
"It was such an emotional moment," Andy recalled.
After lying flat for 10 days Ruben underwent five weeks of rehabilitative treatment before he was discharged.
"We honestly can't thank the medical teams enough," said Andy. "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."
Kit Roberts