Four-year-old girl hospitalised for two months after catching chickenpox

Olivia woke up unable to move the left side of her body.Neil Shaw Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle)08:25, 10 Aug 2026A four-year-old was left hospitalised for two months after catching chickenpox. Olivia Elliot, now five, woke up vomiting and complaining of a headache in June 2025 but mum, Rebecca, 31, initially thought she had just picked up a bug.‌But when the girl toppled on one side and couldn't grip her mum's hand she was rushed to hospital and her condition rapidly deteriorated. After CT scans, MRI scans, blood tests and a lumbar puncture, doctors confirmed the four-year-old had suffered a stroke.‌They discovered severe inflammation in one of the main arteries supplying her neck, which specialists believe had been triggered by the chickenpox virus she contracted in Christmas 202