Louisiana: Freak schoolyard soccer accident causes 11yo, Cole Ditmore, to have stroke, ongoing health issues

A freak accident in a schoolyard has resulted in a terrifying situation for a family after an 11-year-old suffered a stroke after being hit by a soccer ball with a pen in his mouth.

Cole Ditmore was standing in his school playground in Louisiana when the ball accidentally hit him in the head while he stood with a marker in his mouth in June this year.

The impact forced “the marker into the back of his throat,” his mother, Angelina Frazier, told local outlet WAFB.

After thinking the boy had suffered a concussion, Ms Frazier took Cole to the Our Lady of the Lake St. Elizabeth Hospital to be assessed.

Doctors found a “small puncture hole” in his throat from the marker and diagnosed that he was showing symptoms of potentially having a stroke a report in People.

Ms Frazier said he “started slurring his words, half of his facial muscles started drooping, and he struggled to move his left arm,” while being checked by an ear, nose and throat specialist.

The boy was then treated under stroke protocol by doctors before being transported to the Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Centre’s Heart and Vascular Institute, where he spent four days in the Pediatric ICU, according to WAFB.

Doctors discovered that the marker in Ditmore’s throat had compressed his carotid artery, creating a blood clot which led to the stroke.

“The first thing I remember was waking up around 11 or 12 and seeing my dad and my mum just all there, and I hear them talking, but I couldn’t respond and I couldn’t talk,” Ditmore told WAFB.

“The first thing he said to me, he was like, ‘Mum, am I going to die?’ ” Ms Frazier added.

After undergoing six months of physical therapy the boy has made significant progress but is still on medicaton and under the watchful eye of doctors.

“We were where we were supposed to be when we needed to be, because had he not presented the stroke in front of the ENT, they wouldn’t have been able to act as quickly as they did,” Frazier told WAFB.

Ditmore is still experiencing some issues following the stroke, and has reduced his sporting activities while being on blood thinners.

“I’ve been trying my best to get back to my normal self. I don’t know if I can, but I hope I can,” the 11-year-old said.