Britannia Wrestling Promotions have seen some great, brave people fight in our wrestling ring, but the bravest person ever to step into a BWP venue is none other than 9 year old Callum Murray.  Callum, born on 21^st November 2001, has suffered multiple severe illnesses and ailments during his 9 short years, each time battling against the odd’s and sticking his foam finger up at fate and he came out the other side victorious.

Callum was born a healthy baby boy, shortly afterwards he was diagnosed with asthma following a string of chest infections.  Asthma effects millions of people worldwide for various reasons and is easily monitored and treated without causing too much inconvenience and discomfort to the sufferer.  However this early ailment was just the start of what would turn out to be a battle for life.

In September 2005 Callum was rushed to hospital by his parents, Sharon & Rob Murray, after he suddenly collapsed and stopped breathing whilst watching TV.  Following a speedy recovery and several medical examinations, Callum was diagnosed as being having an innocent heart murmur and that there was nothing to be concerned about.  However during the following 4 weeks Callum continued to collapse and stop breathing, Callum also started to suffer from nausea and headaches, vomiting continuously throughout day and night, even when he was sleeping.  Callums parents made many trips back and forth to Whiston Hospital to try and identify the exact cause of Callums suffering.

Following several ECG and EEG scans on his heart and head that took place until December 2005, Callum was then diagnosed with epilepsy, however the Epilepsy Nurse reffered Callum and his parents onto Alder Hey Childrens Hospital to undergo further tests and a second opinion due to a niggling doubt that epilepsy was the only cause of Callums blackouts and other symptoms.  Callum then received an MRI scan prior to his appointment at Alder Hey in January 2006, and the results of the MRI would change Callums, and everybody in Callums life, upside down.

The Neurosurgeon at Alder Hey informed Sharon & Rob Murray that their son had ‘Arnold Chiari Malformation’, a serious brain condition that required immediate surgery or Callum could have died.  This shocking and heartbreaking news loomed over the Murray family as their innocent, young child who had already been subjected to test after test over the past several months must now undergo major brain surgery, and there were no other options for them to explore.

Callum was blacking out and stopping breathing because his brain stem was being squashed because of how compressed the area was at the back of his brain, his CSF (spinal fluid) was not able to flow past the back of his brain and down his spinal cord which was causing him to stop breathing and black out, the Doctors called it ‘drop attacks’.  Callums parents had to become resuscitation trained to deal with these symptoms wherever and whenever they happened.

Sadly all of Callums symptoms returned about 2 months later and his condition continued to get worse. Callum underwent even more tests, MRI scans and CT scans and in October 2006 Callums Neurosurgeon told his family that the bone had grown back that the Doctors had removed in January and that Callum needed further decompression surgery to keep him safe, his parents were warned that the risk to life during a 2nd decompression where much higher than the first time.

Callum was very ill after the second decompression surgery on his brain, he spent 8 days on the high dependency ward unit before being moved on to the Neurological Ward, he was still very weak and in a lot of pain as well as being violently sick.  After 2 weeks he was allowed home but only got to spend 48 hours there before being rushed back to hospital, he spent the whole time at home lying down in agony – people talking around him hurt his head, any type of noise caused him to cover his ears and cry with pain, he started to projectile vomit and then became very flat and was struggling to breathe. Sharon & Rob rushed their son to A&E at Alder Hey Childrens Hospital where he was immediately placed on oxygen and given another CT scan which showed that he had a bad bleed at one side of his brain, the surgeons said it was to dangerous to operate because he was still recovering from brain surgery, they hoped the bleed on his brain would stop itself and reabsorb, 24 hours later Callum had to have emergency surgery to insert a drain into the side of his brain to stop the bleed. He was took to high dependency again after the surgery and had a tube coming out the side of his head that attached to a bag where the blood emptied into and was measured. Callum had this drain in place for 10 days, it then took another operation to remove the drain.

Callums condition left him deteriorating, he lost lots of weight so was put on steroids, he was still having bad headaches and he had another operation to insert a probe into his brain to measure the pressure inside his brain.  After 4 days he had the probe and wire removed.  Callums parents were then informed that Callum had developed Hydrocephalus, his pressure in his brain was to high because of the obstruction when he had the bleed on his brain it caused Callums brain to make too much CSF, Callum had to have yet another operation to have a VP shunt put in place, the shunt runs from the brain and drains the extra fluid down a tube that runs down into the stomach where the fluid is reabsorbed, there is also a valve that is attached to the tubing and sits near the ear, this valve controls the setting for the pressure when the shunt drains the extra fluid.  After 6 weeks Sharon & Rob finally got Callum home in November.

Christmas Day 2006 in Scotland, Callum was too sick to open his presents so the family travelled back home and took Callum to Alder Hey Childrens Hospital where he had another operation to have ICP monitoring again to measure the pressure on his brain.  After 2 days of monitoring the Doctors decided that Callums pressure was too high so they operated again on his brain to change the top part of his shunt.  A few days later Callum was getting worse so the Doctors operated on him again and replaced the whole shunt all the way from his brain to his stomach.  On 2nd January 2007 they operated and removed the bottom part of the shunt in his stomach and replaced it with an external drain but after a few days they realised that the problem was that Callum wasn’t absorbing any better with the tube outside and this could not be a permanent solution.  The doctors said that Callums body was rejecting the shunt but he needed it to keep him alive.  They decided to operate on his brain again and remove the shunt completely and do a procedure called Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy (ETV) which is an alternative to shunt placement for treatment of hydrocephalus, the technique opens a hole inside the brain to re-establish effective flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

The operation was very risky but the Doctors and Surgeons decided they had no choice but to go ahead with it, while they did this they also inserted a reservoir into the front of Callums brain in case they ever needed to take samples of his CSF.  Thankfully the operation was a success! Finally some good news for Callum and is family, but then another nightmare began for them all.  24 hours after the surgery Callum was playing on the Ward when he suddenly started to vomit and complained of headaches, within 30 minutes he was flat and unresponsive – Callum had slipped into a coma.

The Neurosurgeons rushed to aid the Ward Nurses – nobody could believe how fast that this had happened, the surgeons had to inject a needle direct into Callums head straight away to get a sample of his CSF, as soon as they drained some of the CSF it was apparent that there was something seriously wrong as the fluid was cream/yellow coloured and cloudy.  It was then that the Medical Professionals informed Sharon & Rob that their son had meningitis.  Treatment commenced straight away by putting the antibiotics straight into his brain via the reservoir at the front of his brain. When further results came back the Doctors told the Murrays that the meningitis that Callum had was called Ventriculitis which stays within the ventricles within the brain but could cause severe brain damage.  After 2 days treatment Callum was not responding to treatment, his white cell count was still as high as the first time it was taken, the meningitis bug was breeding on the reservoir in his brain which meant that Callum needed further surgery to have it taken out.  While they operated they also put an External Ventrical Drain so that the infected fluid could be drained.

After a week Callum started to respond to treatment.  After 2 and half weeks they operated again to remove the drain.  Callum finally made it back home in mid-February 2007, but still wasn’t well.

May 2007, the neurosurgeon decided that they had to operate again to do ICP monitoring, the probe into Callums brain to measure the pressure over a few days. At the end of June 2007 Callum was reffered onto Great Ormond Street Hospital for further analysis and devastating news followed when Sharon & Rob were informed that Callum needed to undergo a further Chiari decompression surgery at the back of his brain.  A professor at Great Ormond Street Hospital told the Murrays that the decompression surgery that Callum needed again would be much riskier because it was the third time he was the procedure done, the Professor said that when after re-looking at Callums scan results there still wasn’t enough room at the back of Callums brain for the CSF to circulate and travel down the spinal cord. He said that Alder Hey Hospital might refuse to do the surgery because of the risks and if that was the case then Callum would be admitted to Great Ormond Street and the Professor would perform the surgery himself.  Callum was admitted to Alder Hey on 1st July 2007 and had his third Chiari decompression surgery a couple of days later.  Naturally Callums entire family were terrified during the operation, after a very long day waiting for Callum to come out of theatre he was taken to high dependency unit where he spent 2 weeks, he was very ill, he could barely move his head or neck because of the pain and couldn’t eat or drink, he was very weak, he moved onto the ward after the 2 weeks and after having his central line removed from his neck.

After a week the neurosurgeons decided to take Callum to theatre and give him a general anaesthetic to do a lumbar puncture. A couple of hours after having this procedure done, Sharon & Rob were dished out even more life shattering news – Callum had meningitis!  The meningitis was a different type from the one he had in January earlier that year, he was put on IV antibiotics, 3 different types, he was really unwell, he spent a few days back in high dependency then back on the ward, after a few days his IV antibiotics were not able to be administered through his canuala in his arm, so they tried to access his vein using a canuala in his hand, this wouldnt work either but he needed one in urgently because he needed the iv antibiotics to treat the meningitis, callums veins in both arms and hands had collapsed because they had been used so much since Callum got sick , they tried to put a canula in his ankle but after a couple of hours it failed because he was just too weak.  So the medical staff decided to operate and try putting another central line in his neck then they could use this to give him the IV antibiotics, 24 hours after the operation to put a new central line in it stopped working.  The doctors decided to do another lumber puncture to see if Callumms white cell count had reduced enough for them to treat the meningitis with oral antibiotics, he had another general anaesthetic and they done the lumbar puncture that day.

Callums cell count hadn’t come down at all so he needed the IV antibiotics still, next day they operated again to try put a long line up his arm, hoping this would last a while and he could be treated with iv antibiotics using this, after the operation the long line lasted 48 hours and then failed. the next day callum had another operation to put a broviac line in his chest, this was a permanent option and a little tube was placed in his chest next to his heart and part of the tube hung outside his chest so that iv antibiotics, painkillers etc could be fed through the tube to treat Callum. they could also use this tube to take blood tests and stuff.  Thankfully this worked.  Callum wasn’t getting any better though and they done another lumbar puncture.  The neurosurgeon informed us that Callums cell count wasn’t coming down at all and that they would have to operate on his brain again they needed to open up his decompression wound go right down to where they had removed some bone and brain tissue and clean it all out because they thought that the a little bit of debri from his decompression operation was there and that the meningitis bug was breeding on that, they operated the following day and Callum was in theatre for a few hours they told his parents after they cleaned out the wound that they needed to do specialist stitches to make sure the scar would heal after being opened again so soon after surgery.  Within 48 hours Callums cell count started to come down slowly, more misery was around the corner though about 3 days later Callums temperature became very high again and he was in terrible pain with headaches.  It was around 3am in the morning and Callum sat up in bed with his Mum trying to comfort him when she felt his pyjama top was wet down the back, Sharon discovered that CSF was pouring out of the decompression scar.  Callum was rushed to theatre by neurosurgeon and had an operation to have an external drain put in his head to try divert the CSF leak and reduce the pressure in Callums brain, the CSF leak was caused by a huge build up of pressure in Callums brain and the extra fluid that had built up had to be released.  Callum had to have the drain in his brain for 2 weeks, he was starting to get better when he was struck with c-diff which its a fatal bug that can kill!  Callum was moved into isolation for ten days while he was treated for this bug, he lost almost half his body weight during this time.  When he recovered from the c-diff Callum had to have another operation on his brain to remove the drain and put another YP shunt in place.  A week later Callum had another operation to remove his stitches from the decompression scar.  Callum finally made it back home once again in the middle of August 2007, he had been in Alder Hey Hospital since July.

Over the next few months Callum continued to have headaches, nausea, black outs, neck pain, back pain, leg pain, memory loss, numbness in his fingers, lethargy and lots of other symptoms.  Callum continued to be in and out of hospital for the next few months having scans, periods of observation, etc.  In November 2007 his shunt blocked so Callum had to have another operation to replace his shunt.  After that operation Callums neurosurgeon was seeing him on a weekly basis to keep a close eye on how he was doing until May 2008 when he had to have another operation to measure the pressure in his brain again (ICP monitoring) after a week of monitoring they told Sharon & Rob that Callums whole shunt had to be replaced again, the catheter part of the shunt which is the part where it starts and sits in the ventricle of the brain had to be moved from the ventricle near the back of the brain to the ventricle near the front of brain.  Callum had the operation to replace the shunt and move the catheter in his brain but there was some complications, he suffered a haemorrhage when they took out the old catheter at the back of his brain.  The doctors told Callums family that this would heal itself, and luckily after a few bad days post op, Callum was fine.

Callum continued to have all the previous problems for many months but was seeing neurosurgeon weekly to make sure things weren’t getting so bad that there was a risk to his life.

Then in November 2008 Callum had to have another operation to replace his shunt and valve.  He had another MRI scan, (he was having them every 3 months at one point and a CT scan every month to monitor his condition) in Jan 2009 and Sharon & Rob were told that Callum had a cyst at the back of his brain, it could not be surgically removed because it is to near the brain stem, if it got bigger and put pressure on his brain stem then Callum could become paralysed – if this happened the surgeons would insert a needle into the back of his brain to drain some fluid from the cyst to reduce the size of it, if Callum had became paralysed this would make him better because as soon as the cyst was reduced in size to take pressure of his brain stem he would regain full movement of his body and speech etc, thankfully the cyst has never had to be drained.  A few days after finding out about the cyst in January 2009 Callum was took back into hospital and had to have another operation for ICP monitoring again to measure the pressure in his brain.  He then had another operation to replace the valve in his shunt again.

In February 2009 Callum had to have yet another operation for ICP monitoring.  After a week of monitoring Callum had another operation to replace the shunt and valve, this time they fitted an extra device to the valve called an anti-syphon device to help cope with the amount of fluid that Callum was having to drain.  This time during the operation they actually refitted the ICP monitor so that they could check this shunt was working for Callum while he was attached to a pressure monitor.

That was the last brain operation that Callum has had to endure because the surgeons have said that every time that they operate, they are creating more scar tissue in his brain which is causing problems, every operation was increasing his chance of more infections like meningitis, so the medical professionals decided to monitor Callum with regular scans and weekly visits to the neurosurgical unit.

Unfortunately Callum has had to have more surgery as a result of the previous surgeys, in November 2009 Callum had to have his tonsils removed because he was having trouble with fighting infection, but any infection in the throat could enter his blood stream then pass up into the shunt tubing and then infection would spread to his brain, so because of that risk his tonsils had to be removed.   It was also discovered that same month that Callum had problems with his kidneys due to the strength of the medication he had to take when he had meningitis, Callum had an ultra-sound and it showed scarring on his kidneys, he had to see the kidney specialists who said that he needed to have a gamma cam done ASAP to check his kidney function, she warned us that Callum may need kidney dialysis if things where as bad as they initially thought, thankfully Callum doesn’t need dialysis at the moment, his kidney function however is only within 1% of the acceptable working range, he has to stay under the care of the kidney consultant and will have regular checks to make sure his kidneys are still functioning correctly.

Callum is also under the care of an eye consultant at alder hey because high pressure in the brain can cause damage to the eyes, and in extreme case children can lose their eyesight if the pressure isn’t detected.  Callum is also under a psychologist at Alder Hey Hospital because of his mood swings, he can become very agitated, obsessive and physically & verbally aggressive.  He also sees the neurologist and the neurosurgeon regular and also has to see the ent consultant at Alder Hey Hospital as well because he continues to have throat problems.  Callum had to have surgery on his throat again in January 2011 because he was still getting throat infections, he was operated on to remove the tissue that was left behind after they took his tonsils out.

Callum has to take 20 tablets a day at present. The problem that Callums parents and family have is that Cllums neurosurgeon has said that his shunt is blocking intermittently and he is getting a build up of pressure which is making Callum feel worse than he normally feels because of headaches, nausea and feeling drained.  Callums brain has collapsed around the catheter in his head where the shunt tubing begins and drains the extra CSF (spinal fluid that’s produced in the brain and travels around the brain down the spinal cord and back up to the brain) Callum makes to much of the CSF and has the shunt in to drain the extra CSF down the plastic tube which they put in and runs through the brain over the top of his head then down behind his ear into his neck and all the way down to his stomach where the extra CSF is reabsorbed in his stomach, the extra CSF in the brain causes increased inter cranial pressure which if left to build up enough can cause blindness, coma and even death. So its really important that Callums shunt is working properly.

Medicals explained that Callums brain had collapsed around the catheter and one side of his brain is worse than the other, his ventricles have slipped to which is the part of the brain they attach the catheter to.  His shunt is failing to work intermittently it could be 50/50 its working fine and the rest of the time it stops working for periods of time.  The neurosurgeon was honest enough with Callums parents to admit that if they operate to change his shunt they could actually make things worse inside his brain as they can not predict if a new shunt will resolve the problem or make it worse.  Surgeons were planning to take him in to operate and place an inter-cranial pressure monitor into his brain for a week or two to see how high his pressure in his brain is, if they decide to do the pressure monitoring in his brain and it proves his pressure is dangerously high there is nothing that they can do to change it or make it better because of Callums brain collapsing around the shunt.  Medical professionals say they don’t have the technology available yet to help Callum with this, in a couple of years there will be alternatives but at the moment there is not much they can do without taking a big risk on making things worse or causing severe brain damage because of the trauma with the brain collapsing.

The Chiari Institute in New York, USA might have some answers to all the questions that Alder Hey Hospital can’t answer for the family.  Britannia Wrestling Promotions alongside Runcorn Wrestling Academy are doing everything possible to raise the money needed to send Callum and his parents to America to try and get these answers.  Runcorn Wrestling Academy ran a special show on Saturday 13th August 2011 to raise money for Callum Medical Fund – the show being a huge success with locals who know and support the brave 9 year old.

On Saturday 27th August 2011 Britannia Wrestling Promotions will hold a special 3 hour show at Saltney Tavern, Chester with all proceeds going to the Callum Murray Medical Fund.  The show will feature Superstars from Britannia Wrestling Promotions, Runcorn Wrestling Academy and our Mancunian friends at Futureshock Wrestling.

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