Article content

Lisa Barrie is a very worried mom.

For the last four months, Barrie has spent full days at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario helping care for her 12-year-old son, Jeffrey Michaud. Last July 2, she thought he was playing a prank on her when he couldn’t be roused from bed.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Adami: Stroke-disabled boy needs long-term fundraising help to remain with family Back to video

But it was no joke. Jeffrey was pretty close to death as doctors later determined the unconscious boy had bacterial meningitis and had suffered two strokes in his sleep. Up until he went to bed on July 1, “he was a healthy, happy kid who was always running around,” says Barrie.

The strokes, says the single mother, were caused by blood clots behind his left ear and one in his jugular vein.

Jeffrey, who was headed into Grade 8 at Carleton Place High School in September and excited about playing junior football in Grade 9, was on life-support for a month before slowly regaining consciousness in August. The meningitis is gone but the mental and physical damage is still being assessed. Jeffrey is paralyzed on his right side, cannot speak, needs a special wheelchair when he’s not in bed and is on a liquid diet. He can see and hear, and he recognizes his mother and younger siblings, Zackary, 11, and Kaitlyn, 10. He uses a yes-no board to point his answers to questions he is asked.