‘It’s a moment I will cherish with every inch of my heart.’
“It’s a moment I will cherish with every inch of my heart,” a beaming Emma Labuschagne told CNN after her 14-week-old son Michael woke up from a five-day coma and smiled at his father.
As soon as the little boy woke up, he recognised his father, Stuart Labuschagne, and gave him the sweetest smile. “To be really honest, it’s got to be the happiest moment of my life. He is a living miracle, and we have never felt prouder of him,” continued Emma.
For both Emma and Stuart, it’s been a tough journey which started in March this year. They were at their wits end when little Michael stopped breathing in the early hours.
Doctors said he had suffered a cardiac arrest at their home. Paramedics shocked him with a defibrillator and injected him with adrenaline to stabilise his heartbeat, CNN reported.
Thereafter, Michael was placed in a medically-induced coma to protect his brain from further damage.
The Labuschagnes soon learnt that he had a cardiac fibroma. According to Wikipedia, cardiac fibroma is a rare benign tumour of the heart that occurs primarily in infants and children. Michael’s tumour is 5 centimetres wide.
The UK-based family now plan to make the trip to Boston Children’s Hospital with a Cardiac Tumor Program which boasts a 100% survival rate.
But the treatment and surgery will cost the family $147 000 (about R2.1-million).
“When we received a response from Boston confirming that he would be a good candidate for surgery, it did not matter what the cost was,” said Emma. “We would pay any amount of money to save our child’s life.”
The couple have since started a GoFundMe page to raise money for the costs.
