Wigan man left severely disabled by childhood brain haemorrhage mourned

Rhys Priestley had been a happy and healthy youngster when he suffered a massive bleed caused by an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) when aged five.

It left him unable to speak or move and turned his loving family’s world upside down.

Since then mum Adele Brown had been his full-time carer, dedicating innumerable hours to keeping him as happy and as comfortable as possible.

But his health had been deteriorating and on Monday September 9 – his sister Demi’s 28th birthday – he died at home in Scholes, just a few days short of his own 22nd birthday.

A GoFundMe appeal has been launched to help the distraught family pay for his funeral.

Adele said: "It is like I have lost him again now. I lost him when the haemorrhage struck in 2007 and now I’ve lost him for a second time.

"Everything I did was for him and I can’t believe he’s gone. I can’t face going into his room.”

Adele, who lives with Rhys’s step-dad Barry Seddon and also has a 25-year-old son Jack, said Rhys had battled so bravely all the misfortune he had faced.

She said: “Rhys had a normal, happy and healthy few years. He had attended the Little Sunshines nursery and was due to start at St Catherine’s Infants when he was five.

"But he was at home one day when he started complaining about a headache and then suddenly passed out in the living room.

"He was rushed into Wigan Infirmary where they put him on life support. He was transferred to Pendlebury Children’s Hospital and underwent three major brain operations. That managed to stop the bleeding but had to remove a section of his skull to relieve the pressure. This was eventually replaced with a metal plate.

"He was in ICU for three weeks and it was nine months before he was out of hospital.

"He was left with several complex health needs. He had seizures every day although these were controlled to an extent by medication. He was non-verbal, couldn’t move, was doubly incontinent and developed scoliosis of the spine. He was unable to swallow so they had to put in a button for him to be fed directly into his stomach.

"But while he couldn’t speak I could understand what he was wanting and thinking from his eyes.”

In 2015 Rhys underwent further surgery for a dislocated hip which was not altogether successful.

But he had the love of his mum and the rest of his family and attended the Grange Centre at Marus Bridge.

In April Rhys was back in Wigan Infirmary with pneumonia and Adele said he never really picked up again thereafter.

But his death still came as a shock. He had been at a respite care centre at Ince from Thursday to Sunday and was brought back home and put to bed the next morning.

Adele said: “It was early on Monday morning and I just had this feeling and went into see him and he wasn’t breathing. We called an ambulance but the paramedics said he had gone.

"I was just devastated. I will miss him so much.”