A MUM devastated by the sudden death of her teenage son from a hidden medical condition has launched a petition calling on the Scottish Government to offer full body scans for newborn babies.
The move by Sameena Javed is to make sure rare and hidden medical conditions are detected early.
The mum is also petitioning for introduce bereavement lessons in schools.
Unknown to anyone, Sameena’s 13-year-old son, Ahmar had Ateriovenous Malformation (AVM), which caused him to suddenly develop a bleed on the brain in 2017.
The lad’s mum and dad, Sameena and Javed, from Elderslie, had to take the agonising decision to turn off his life support machine 10 days after Ahmar suffered the bleed at a karate class.
The 40-year-old mum, from Paisley, said: “I don’t want other families to go through the heartbreak my family felt. The condition Ahmar had was totally asymptomatic and no one had any idea. We only discovered it after he had a brain bleed and by then it was too late.
“I’m calling on the Scottish Government to offer brain and body scans to all neonates in our hospitals. I appreciate not every parent will want their baby to be scanned, but surely it’s worth it if a hidden or rare condition can be detected and treated.
“If my son had been offered a brain scan at birth his condition could have been detected, potentially treated and he would still be with us.”
Sameena, added: “Ahmar’s sudden death had a terrible effect on many of his fellow pupils at Castlehead High School, in Paisley.
“The shock hit Ahmar’s young relatives and friends very hard.
“If young people in schools are taught about bereavement and death, then it might be ever so slightly easier for them to cope with the grief that follows.”
After Ahmar died, Sameena launched a charity called, Another Star In The Sky which has raised more than £13,000 with money being donated to the Office for Rare Conditions Glasgow and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, to help fund research into rare illnesses like AVM that killed Ahmar.
The other part of fundraising goes to the Child Bereavement UK charity’s Glasgow centres.
Go to www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/bereavement
education and www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/detectionofhiddenandrareconditions to sign Sameena’s petitions.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here