Rory Grant, five, was given the chance to play an angel in his P1 Nativity after needing surgery due to complications with a head wound.
Rory needed surgery on a lesion on his head(Image: Glasgow Children’s Hospital)
A Scots schoolboy got out of hospital after undergoing an important operation just in time to play an angel in his school nativity play. Rory Grant, five, from Saltcoats, North Ayrshire, was born with a five-pence-sized lesion on his head as a result of the skin not joining together properly in the womb.
The lesion started becoming itchy and sore so Rory underwent an operation on November 5 to remove it and glue it back together. The procedure was successful but three weeks later, an abscess popped out the wound during a swimming lesson.
Rory, a P1 pupil at Stanley Primary School in Ardrossan, was operated on the next day to clean the wound out. Luckily, as if by Christmas miracle, Rory managed to get his bandages off the day before he performed in the nativity.
Although he missed the first performance, he was able to make up for it on the second day of the show when he performed in front of his whole school, according to Glasgow Live.
Rory’s mum, Natalie, said: “Rory started P1 in August and loves school. We were scared he might miss his nativity but he is perfectly fine now and was back at school just in time to do his part. He was the angel paper boy.
“Being at home with everyone healthy means everything. Rory is hoping to get a bike, a Minecraft plushie, and a Nerf bow and arrow for Christmas.”
Rory got out of hospital just in time to play the angel in his school nativity(Image: Glasgow Children’s Hospital)
Rory had a CT scan when he was two where medics discovered that the lesion he was born with was only skin deep. Due to this, they decided to leave it until he was older before anything needed to be done about it.
However, it started becoming irritable so it was decided that he would be operated on to remove the lesion and glue it back together.
A week after Rory’s operation in November, an abscess popped out of the wound when he put on his school jumper, leading to two weeks of antibiotics.
Rory got a visit from a basketball team when he was in hospital(Image: Glasgow Children’s Hospital)
A week after that, another abscess popped out when he was putting on swimming goggles. The family was advised to go straight to the Royal Hospital for Children, and he was operated on the next day to clean the wound out.
Rory and his family praised the help of staff at the children’s hospital, from the team that operated on a wound on his head, to the Play Team that helped him make his own angel, which now sits proudly on the family tree at home.
Natalie said that the family not only wanted to thank the both teams for their work. She said: “They gave him arts and crafts to play with and brought him some games along. He also helped colour in for the display boards and they really helped me the day that Rory had a failed cannula.
Rory benefitted from the help of the healthcare workers and the play team at the hospital(Image: Glasgow Children’s Hospital)
“He loved the activities and his angel is on our tree that he made in the hospital. He had a visit from the professional basketball team as well and he enjoyed saying his line from the nativity to them in case he missed the school one.
“The staff were excellent and I’m forever grateful. I felt informed, everything was well organised, and everyone was really caring and kind towards us. They were reassuring and distracted me. They were real people who cared.”