Former AFL gamer and train Brett Ratten has actually made a damaging admission concerning his child’s health and wellness fight throughout a podcast to aid increase recognition for theEpilepsy Foundation The Carlton wonderful and previous Blues, St Kilda and North Melbourne train is participating in the yearly Walk for Epilepsy occasion and has actually opened on the heartbreaking scenario around his child, Tilly, that deals with the problem.
Ratten’s tale is a tremendously unfortunate one, with the 53-year-old shedding his 16-year-old child Cooper to a deadly auto accident eastern of Melbourne in 2015. Four years afterwards catastrophe shook the lives of Ratten and his household, the Carlton premiership wonderful’s child Tilly started struggling with disabling seizures, with Ratten exposing that they can begin as much as 30 times daily.
“Her seizures are a little bit different,” Ratten claimed on the AFL.com.au podcast,Between Us “We (initially) didn’t know if it was absentee epilepsy or focal epilepsy. Her head went to the side and then you would see the whites of her eyes and she would stop and freeze and pause for 20 or 30 seconds. She would have up to 30 a day, but then when the medication came in, it started to affect her balance, so she started to fall over.”
< figcaption course=" caption-collapse">AFL great Brett Ratten and his family have endured more than their fair share of tragedy. Pic: Instagram/jo._.ratten
Brett Ratten reveals scary nature of daughter’s seizures
Ratten was renowned for being a tough, no-nonsense midfielder during his playing days with Carlton that included a premiership and three best and fairest awards with the club he played 255 with from 1990 to 2003. But the 53-year-old admits seeing his little girl suffer was extremely difficult to take and says he wished he could have traded places with her.
“Your heart goes out to think ‘could you give it to me’ and then I can deal with it,” he said. “But you can not. The great component was we discovered what it was, so after that you can begin the procedure of attempting to manage it.
“We were quite fortunate it took around three months and then the seizures started to stop. That was great. At one point the medication kicked in and the seizures stopped and we’ve been fortunate since. But touch wood, she is going really well. We have learned how to manage it and all that and she is getting constant assessment, which is great.
“She is 12 now and as you know, as you grow through those years the brain changes and all these things. So it is just trying to make sure that we’ve got everything in place.”
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Brett Ratten makes devastating admission about late son
Ratten also touched on the unfathomable death of his teenage son Cooper, who is never far from the thoughts of the AFL great. The teenager died after the car he was travelling in was struck by a drunk driver, who was convicted and jailed for five years over the tragedy.
Cooper was a promising junior footy player but his life was cut short when a car being driven by a fellow teenager veered off the road and crashed at Yarra Glen almost 10 years ago. Ratten says his late son is still very much in his thoughts but admits the mention of his name can sometimes reduce him to tears.
“Some days I can say his name and nothing, I’m OK,” Ratten claimed. “And then other days I say his name and it’s waterworks everywhere. He’s not with us, but he’s with us every day.”
