Jacob’s survival story

Fifteen-year-old Jacob Cachia was studying for his ‘O’ levels when he started suffering from strong headaches that eventually led to him spending five months in hospital and undergoing three major brain operations. The brave teenager survived and he and his family are now on a mission to share their story to help others. The Sunday Times of Malta met the family at their Zabbar home. Jacob walked into the living room – while family dog Peanut barks in the background – wearing his red Angry Birds T-shirt. “In hospital they called him the Angry Bird. He used to love playing the computer game and when he was in a coma we would tell him: ‘You are the angry bird killing the pigs’. And he remembered when he woke up,” his mother, Sarah, said as she sat near her husband Sammy and their 11-year-old daughter Chloe to tell their story. On January 31 Jacob went to hospital because his headaches became dramatically worse. He was diagnosed with sinusitis and admitted to the ENT ward. On the fifth day Jacob suffered a seizure. An MRI revealed that the right side of his brain was full of pus – bacteria had entered his brain through the sinuses. He had an operation that included removing part of...