Parker Aslakson (Photo: courtesy of the Aslakson family)
A Full Recovery
It was a lazy September morning, and Rachel Aslakson was enjoying watching her 1-year-old son, Parker, sleep. She couldn’t have imagined that in two hours, she and Parker would be racing north in an ambulance from Red Wing, Minn., to University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis.
Waking Parker that morning was difficult, and he couldn’t hold up his head in his high chair, Rachel recalls. “He was too alert to have had a seizure, but nothing about him was normal.”
After a frenzied trip to his pediatrician’s office, where Parker underwent tests and was started on an IV, an ambulance took Parker and his mom to the University. Rachel’s husband, Adam, and his mother, Cathy, a nurse, followed by car.
At the University, neurologist Peter Karachunski, M.D., began a round of tests, including a spinal tap. The next day, Parker was back to crawling, though he had been walking for six weeks. The next day, Karachunski shared his stunning diagnosis: Parker had suffered two strokes.
After many more tests, Karachunski discovered the strokes’ cause—a dissected artery in Parker’s neck, which caused his blood to clot. When the artery’s collapsed walls shifted, the blood clot entered Parker’s brain and caused the strokes.
Parker immediately began his treatment: six monthly MRIs and intensive blood-thinning therapy, which included baby Aspirin and twice-a-day injections of Lovonex, an effective but expensive drug. This allowed other blood vessels to accept the increased blood flow and to grow and expand, thus “retiring” the dissected artery.
Throughout the ordeal, Rachel says, Parker received the best possible care, and she particularly commends the University’s Child-Life specialists. “They went out of their way to accommodate us.”
Parker, now 3 years old, has fully recovered. In gratitude, the Aslaksons have established the Parker Aslakson Fund for Pediatric Research and Development, pledging to raise $25,000.
"Our goal is to have the money available [for research] so that all families in the care of the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital can have the same great experience and care our family received,” Rachel says.
