The family of a young British boy who emerged from a coma with a smile on his face is on a mission to get him to Boston for life-saving heart surgery.
Michael Labuschagne was just 14 weeks old when he suffered heart failure in the early hours of March 15, his mom Emma wrote in avideo shared to Facebook.
Miraculously, Michael, now 10 months old, did make it through his out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, something less than six percent of patients survive, according to theJournal of the American Heart Association.
Michael Labuschagne.SWNS
Still, he was without oxygen for nine minutes, and was placed in an induced coma in the hospital, his family said.
The Bristol-based toddler spent five days in the coma before he awoke with a smile on his face aimed at his 28-year-old father, Stuart.
“The first thing he did when he opened his beautiful brown eyes was smile at his daddy,” Emma, 27, wrote in her video.
Emma and Michael Labuschagne.
Michael did not suffer any brain damage, but he was diagnosed with a cardiac fibroma that had latched itself to the septum in the left chamber of his heart, according to his GoFundMe.
Though the tumor is benign, its location may obstruct blood flow and is often associated with arrhythmias — or abnormal heart rhythms — and ventricular tachycardia, according toBoston Children’s Hospital.
Michael has been outfitted with an internal pacemaker and defibrillator, though the machines have “caused physical developmental delay” and are not working as effectively as they should be, Emma wrote on the GoFundMe.
Michael Labuschagne.
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The Labuschagnes are now on a mission to raise the $147,000 needed to cover the procedure, and have so far amassed the equivalent of $42,000.
“The dream is to get him to Boston as soon as we can,” the page reads. “Every day we worry if it will be our last with Michael.”
source: people.com
