10-year-old Clearwater boy survives rare brain bleed

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A 10-year-old Clearwater boy is recovering after waking up in the middle of the night with a ruptured blood vessel and bleeding in his brain.

Mason Hammer went to sleep July 26 happy and healthy after swimming at a friend’s house, coming home, and eating dinner, his mom said.

“Last Wednesday at like 2 in the morning, I heard like a gag… he got out of his bunk bed, came down, and got me,” Alexis Hammer told ABC Action News.

She and her husband, Shaun, immediately knew something was wrong.

“I just knew that the talking, it wasn’t sleepwalking… he was unable to speak,” Hammer recalled.

They rushed him to Mease Countryside Hospital, where they transported him to John Hopkin’s All Children’s within two hours, and by that time, he was unconscious.

“They said his brain is bleeding… I just dropped and cried,” Hammer said.

A CT scan revealed Mason’s brain was bleeding from a ruptured blood vessel. Hammer explained that they rushed him into emergency surgery for a craniotomy to remove part of his skull because his brain was swelling.

He had an arteriovenous malformation or AVM — a rare tangling of arteries and veins usually forming before birth.

“Because it’s so rare, you would never know that you or your child or anyone had it unless you had some sort of injury and they had to do a CAT scan,” Hammer said, explaining the answer doctors gave her when she asked if she could have done anything to prevent this from happening to her son.

She said doctors removed a blood clot the size of a golf ball from his brain. Hammer said that he now has a bandage on his head that reads “no bone flap” to make sure everyone at the hospital knows part of his skull is open underneath about 65 stitches.

Monday, Mason is scheduled for a procedure to add glue into the vessels to stop any blood flow there. Tuesday, doctors will perform surgery to untangle the vessels and replace the part of the skull they had to remove.

Mason is already walking again with the doctor’s help and is back to a regular diet. His parents said his first requested meal in recovery was his favorite– California roll sushi and coconut water.

It’ll take time and lots of therapy, but doctors say he’ll recover fully.

“We explained to him what happened and how, you know, he was so strong to come and get me that he basically saved his own life,” Hammer said. “And he’s like, you know, whoa, like, look at all these staples and, you know, he’s gonna have a cool little scar.”

The Hammers said the best thing parents can do is pay attention to their children and take immediate action if they notice differences.

The Hammers are also Tampa Bay natives and said the community has been unbelievably supportive. A family friend started a GoFundMe to help the family, who also have two special needs 8-year-old twins and a four-year-old. Click here to donate.

Click here to learn more about AVM and the signs.