“She was an avid singer and her voice has been taken away — that’s been devastating for her,” said Lexi Brown’s mom, Stacy Grantham
Credit: crowdfunding
NEED TO KNOW
- Lexi Brown was left paralyzed from the neck down after suffering a rare spinal stroke when she was 14 years old
- Doctors still do not know the exact cause of Lexi’s condition
- The teen, now 15, has regained some movement through intensive physiotherapy, but she must now talk through a tracheostomy tube and is unable to complete everyday tasks
A teenage girl was left paralyzed from the neck down after getting sick with the flu.
Lexi Brown from Essex, England, was recovering at home from flu-like symptoms in December 2025 when she suddenly experienced excruciating pain, according to her mother, Stacy Grantham, per SWNS.
Stacy said that Lexi, who was 14 at the time, called her in terror.
“She phoned me, screaming in pain,” Stacy said. “You know when you hear a certain scream, and you just know it's something serious? It was that.”
Credit: getty
By the time Stacy, 33, rushed home, paramedics were already on the scene and administering CPR.
Lexi was then rushed to a hospital, where doctors placed her in a medically induced coma while they worked to stabilize her and determine what had happened.
Lexi woke up five days later — paralyzed from the neck down.
“We were told she'd have no movement again, and be ventilated for the rest of her life,” her mother said.
The teen was ultimately diagnosed with a spinal stroke, a rare condition caused by interrupted blood flow to the spinal cord. Unlike more common strokes that affect the brain, spinal strokes affect the spinal cord and can cause sudden and severe neck and back pain, numbness and paralysis, per the Cleveland Clinic.
“You picture a stroke as an older person, you don't think it can happen to a healthy 14-year-old,” her mother said. “They never found a cause – the only thing they can go on is that she had the flu, but she had no underlying conditions.”
Credit: getty
Lexi, now 15, is in intensive physiotherapy and has regained some movement in her limbs. And while she can breathe without a ventilator for part of the day, she must now talk through a tracheostomy tube and is unable to complete everyday tasks, like feeding herself.
“She can now talk as she would before, but her voice is huskier and she has an uncomfortable tube in her neck,” Stacy said. “She was an avid singer and her voice has been taken away — that's been devastating for her.”
Credit: getty
Lexi, who was passionate about musical theater and dancing, is now adjusting to her new reality.
“[She] lost everything she loves,” her mother said, adding that the family is “trying to stay positive for her.”
Stacy said she has also recently applied for special council housing to accommodate Lexi once she is eventually released from the hospital, adding that the family's current rental home is not ideal for Lexi's needs.
Family friend Nicola Tayler has since established a JustGiving fundraiser to help the family during this challenging time, adding that Lexi's mother may have to give up her job in order to take care of her daughter full-time.
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“However much or little you can give for Lexi and her family at such an awful time would mean so much,” Nicola wrote on the fundraising page.
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