Brave Ian inspires mum Maggie
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TEENAGER Ian Thomson was given just 48 hours to live by doctors who feared he might not be strong enough to survive an emergency operation.
However, the teen’s message to the surgeon was: "Go and get your scalpel and I will walk down to the operating theatre behind you".
Ian, then just 15, was seriously ill with Crohn’s Disease and his weight had plummetted from 11 stone 5 lbs to just 7 stone 3 lbs in the space of two months.
His parents, Maggie and Willie, had been told to prepare themselves for the worst.
The Elgin High School pupil had collapsed while at Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin before being rushed to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for emergency surgery.
"When the surgical team put him through to Aberdeen they didn’t expect him to come back," said Maggie.
Doctors in Aberdeen doubted he would make it to the operating table, so weak was the teenager.
"We went through with him on the Friday and, on the Saturday, the doctors told us he might just have 48 hours to live," said Maggie.
However, Ian’s indomitable spirit and will to live kicked in and sustained his parents and older brother Mark (19) through their nightmare.
Ian even had time to give tell his mum to pull herself together before going for his op.
"He said to me ‘Mother, stop your crying, it’s me that’s going downstairs’," she recalled, ‘Go and get your tissues and shut up’."
Ian faced a gruelling five hour life-saving operation but there was never any doubt he would pull through.
Within minutes of coming round in the recovery unit, Ian was pleading with the nursing staff to let him back up to the ward to watch a TV programme he had been avidly watching during his time in hospital.
In total, Ian spent around five weeks in hospital in Elgin and Aberdeen before returning to the family home at Birnie, near Elgin.
Now 16 and back at school studying for his highers, Ian said: "I tried not to think about things too much. I just kept going."
He missed more than eight months of school after falling ill with what doctors initially believed was a mystery virus.
"He lost so much weight it was a great shock. I was worried it was cancer he had to start with. He was like a skeleton," said Maggie.
She eventually had to give up work as a minibus driver with Moray Council to look after Ian full-time, with the support of husband Willie, a process engineer with Glenfiddich Distillery.
Motivated to give something back for the care that Ian received in Elgin and Aberdeen, Maggie recently joined the Moray Friends of ARCHIE committee, which is trying to raise £100,000 to boost the children’s ward at Dr Gray’s Hospital.
She has always been a keen knitter and over the years has produced countless garments for premature babies and other tots.
Her support for babies was sparked by a family tragedy when the couple lost their son, Neil, who was lost when Maggie miscarried at 18 weeks. Neil, who would have been a middle son, had to be stillborn and is buried in Elgin.
Maggie is taking on a woolly challenge in aid of the appeal and is seeking donations for a marathon knitting session over the coming weeks.
She has challenged people to guess how many garments she can knit in return for a donation. All the items she completes will be handed over to the maternity unit at Dr Gray’s Hospital.
Maggie has only recently returned to knitting after suffering from golf and tennis elbows in recent years, despite never playing either sport.
Her challenge can be viewed on her Facebook site and anyone wishing to support her efforts with a donation can send it to Chris Saunderson, chairman of the Moray Friends of ARCHIE appeal, c/o The Northern Scot, 74-76 South Street, Elgin IV30 1JG.
Maggie’s progress will be updated on her own and the Moray Friends of ARCHIE Facebook page.
