A MOTHER who was devastated by the shock death of her teenage son is calling on the government to offer full-body scans for all newborn babies.
Sameena Javed lost her son Ahmar to Ateriovenous Malformation (AVM), when he was just 13. The hidden illness caused him to suddenly develop a bleed on the brain in 2017.
Sameena has launched a petition calling for all newborn babies to be given full-body scans to detect hidden medical conditions.
The 40-year-old mother from Paisley, Renfrewshire has also called for bereavement classes to be taught in schools.
Ahmar was rushed to hospital with a brain bleed during a karate class. Ten days later, his mother and father, Javed from Elderslie had to take the agonising decision to turn off his life support machine.
Sameena 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 to treat or save him.
“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 now.”
She said that her son’s death hit his fellow pupils at Castlehead High School, in Paisley hard.
Ahmar’s mother added: “If young people in schools are taught about bereavement and death, then it might be ever so slightly easier for them to understand and cope with the grief that follows losing someone they know and is close to them.”
After Ahmar died, Sameena launched a charity called Another Star In The Sky to raise money in her son’s name.
AVM affects just one in 10,000 people and Sameena thinks there is not enough research into its early diagnosis and treatment, or for other rare diseases.
Her charity has already raised £13,000 to fund research into hidden killer illnesses and half of the money was donated to the Office for Rare Conditions Glasgow at the Royal Hospital for Children and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
The other half of the money went to the Child Bereavement UK charity’s Glasgow centre that offers support to bereaved children and families like Sameena’s.
Ahmar’s school pals at Castlehead High had been given a statue of Oor Wullie to paint by intu Braehead which was then put on display in the shopping centre as part of the Oor Wullie Bucket Trail.
His school friends decided they would paint the statue in Ahmar’s honour and write messages to him on Oor Wullie’s arm.
You can find out more and sign the petition here: www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/detectionofhiddenandrareconditions
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