Mom shares warning after 4-year-old suffers stroke following common childhood disease

A four-year-old was hospitalized for two months after suffering a stroke — which was likely triggered by a common childhood illness she’d picked up months before.Olivia Elliot, now 5, woke up vomiting and complaining of a headache in June 2025 but her mother, Rebecca, 31, initially thought she had just picked up a bug.But when the tot toppled on one side and couldn’t grip her mother’s hand, she was rushed to hospital and her condition rapidly deteriorated.After CT scans, MRI scans, blood tests and a lumbar puncture, doctors confirmed the four-year-old had suffered a stroke.They discovered severe inflammation in one of the main arteries supplying her neck, which specialists believe had been triggered by the chickenpox virus she contracted in Christmas 2024.Olivia temporarily lost movement down the left side of her body, her speech became slurred and one side of her face drooped.She spent almost eight weeks in hospital before beginning the long road to recovery.“I didn’t think children as young as four could have strokes,” Rebecca, who is from West Lothian, Scotland said.“She had chickenpox in December, just before Christmas.

She had lots of spots, but she wasn’t unwell, really.I thought we’d had an easy case.”Olivia was born nine weeks premature and was later diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy after brain damage was detected as a baby.Despite years of physiotherapy, Rebecca says Olivia’s determination helped her become increasingly independent.“She’d worked so hard to get to where she was,” Rebecca said.But shortly before Christmas, Olivia caught chickenpox.

After making a full recovery, the family had no reason to think anything was wrong.Then, six months later, everything changed.Rebecca remembers her husband waking her after finding Olivia being sick.

Olivia had been throwing up clear liquid, which Rebecca thought was odd, and she started complaining of a headache.The pair decided to stay at home for a “sick” day.But when Oliv...