Nine-year-old who went from cross country race to open-heart surgery raises £10k to thank charities

A nine-year-old boy who went from competing in a cross country race to, within a day, fighting for his life on a ventilator after going into heart failure, has raised £10,000 to thank the charities that helped him and his family through the ordeal of his lifesaving open-heart surgery.

Tim Brooks, 41, an accountant, says he did not grasp “how serious it was” when his son, Olly, 9, started coughing one morning.

Olly was taken to hospital after his breathing became laboured, where doctors discovered a build-up of fluid in his lungs because of a faulty heart valve.

As Olly’s health deteriorated, he went into heart failure where only surgery could save his life.

Now fighting fit after the heart valve was replaced, Olly has since raised £10,000 for charity to thank those who saved him.

His father Tim, who lives in Addingham, a village near Ilkley, West Yorkshire, with wife Helen, 41, also an accountant, and Olly and his 10-year-old brother Robert, said: “I couldn’t believe it when we found out that Olly was suffering from heart failure and that his lungs had filled with fluid.

“He needed open heart surgery to fit a mechanical replacement to a defective mitral valve, which is the small flap in the heart which stops blood from flowing the wrong way.

“It was a terrifying situation for us, one which came completely out of the blue. Olly has always been an active child who had shown no signs of any issues before this moment, and the speed at which he deteriorated came as a huge shock to us all.”

Olly’s health took a nosedive in February 2023 “completely out of the blue”, waking up one Saturday morning with a cough.

Tim said: “We didn’t really think much of it and he still went and ran a cross country race at lunchtime. In the afternoon, he had a golf lesson before having a friend round for dinner. It was in the car on the way home, that my wife thought his voice sounded really bad.”

By the Saturday evening, Olly’s breathing had become laboured and, after calling 111, Helen decided to take their son to accident and emergency.

The nine-year-old was taken for a chest X-ray at midnight which revealed his lungs were full of fluid.

Tim said: “Helen phoned me in the morning to say that he’d been put on oxygen during the night and they were moving him to Leeds General Infirmary.

“I hadn’t realised how serious it was until I arrived at the hospital, it was all a bit of a blur.”

Olly was sent to theatre for a 20-minute procedure to intubate him for a ventilator.

Tim added: “The doctor told us it would take three to four days for him to wake up as it was almost an induced coma.

“The first 24 hours were touch and go and, while Helen was working out the logistics of who could care for Robert, I was in pieces.”

Admitted into intensive care, Olly was monitored over the weekend and, when his health continued to deteriorate, had further scans on the Monday.

Those scans and an ultrasound revealed the root of the youngster’s problem, his mitral valve, which regulates blood flow in the heart, was not working properly, and blood was getting into the lungs.

Olly was taken off the ventilator and weaned off heavy sedatives in preparation for his open-heart surgery, with Tim and Helen kissing him goodbye before he was taken to theatre for the six-hour operation.

Surgeons removed the defective mitral valve and fitted a mechanical replacement to stop it from letting blood into the lungs.

The procedure was a success and Olly was taken back to intensive care where he spent a further week before moving to the high dependency unit.

Tim said: “Until the last four or five days of his hospital stay, Olly had been in bed and his muscles were just wasting away the whole time. He barely had the strength to hold his hand up.

“It was horrible to see him like that, he looked emaciated in the bed.”

But as Olly recovered from his surgery, he started using a Zimmer frame to get out of bed, slowly rebuilding his strength.

During their ordeal, Tim and Helen were housed by the Sick Children’s Trust at Eckersley House, just “a few minutes’ walk from Olly’s bedside”.

Tim said: “It allowed Olly’s big brother Robert to come and stay, which was so important for all of us.

“This whole thing had a big impact on Robert, who suddenly found himself staying with friends and grandparents for much of the time. For him to have the chance to stay with us at Eckersley House and see Olly helped bring the family back together.”

At the end of March, after 48 days in hospital, Olly was finally well enough to go home.

He has since gone from strength to strength and has resumed golf lessons and returned to school for the summer term.

In July, Olly took part in a golf fundraiser, playing 48 holes, one for each day he had spent in hospital, to raise a total of £10,000 for the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund (CHSF) and The Sick Children’s Trust.

Tim said: “We’ve been really fortunate with the support we’ve had around us. The nurses and doctors were fantastic and also the support we had from our friends in the village was just amazing.

“The way they rallied round and offered to help in so many ways, particularly looking after Robert, but nothing was too much trouble for people.

“We have been amazed at how determined Olly has been throughout his recovery.

“There were bumps and scares along the way, but we are so proud of him and so grateful to everyone, from friends and family to The Sick Children’s Trust and Children’s Heart Surgery Fund who helped us for the seven weeks he was in hospital.”