Tayte makes great strides
Au afternoon of fun at his grandparent’s farm quickly turned to horror for Tayte Crisafulli, who suffered a serious brain injury.
Townsville
Don't miss out on the headlines from Townsville. Followed categories will be added to My News.
AN afternoon of fun at his grandparent’s farm quickly turned to horror for Tayte Crisafulli, who suffered a serious brain injury.
The six-year-old boy was sitting on a quad bike with his brother Lyrik, 4, and grandfather at his farm near Ingham on July 21 when the freak accident occurred.
The boys’ mother Willow Howarth said she looked on in horror as the bike bounced forward into a cement pillar.
“I saw it happen, I thought I’d lost both my boys and just ran over screaming,” she said.
“They were all unconscious but Tayte wasn’t breathing, he was blue and I couldn’t find a pulse so we started doing CPR and brought him back.”
After being flown to Townsville Hospital it was found that Tayte suffered brain stem damage, which ceased blood flow to the right side of his brain.
Ms Howarth said despite the seriousness of Tayte’s injuries, he proved early on that he was a little fighter. He was taken off life support soon after arriving and the swelling on his brain had reduced after a week.
On August 16, Tayte was transferred to Brisbane for specialist rehabilitation, where he has defied all odds stacked up against him.
“It was like a little switch went off inside of him and he just started improving,” Ms Howarth said.
“He’s a bit of a miracle, he’s walking, he talks non-stop and on a full diet.
“There’s not much he can do with his left hand other than stabilise him but he can bend over and pick stuff up off the ground, which is amazing.”
Ms Howarth said Tayte still had a long way to go in his recovery but all they were focused on now was getting home to Ingham.
“We haven’t been home since the accident or seen Lyrik since September so he (Tayte) is very excited to be with his brother,” she said.
“We get to go home soon and there’s a lot of unknowns about how we’re going to manage life.
“Because of the injury to the brain Tayte’s got no impulse control and a memory thing where he gets obsessed on one thing, he gets headaches and fatigue is going to be a big problem for the rest of his life.”
Originally published as Tayte makes great strides