An infant who survived a heart attack defied odds after awakening from a five-day coma and then smiled at the sight of his father.
Baby Michael Labuschagne, now 10-month old, still has an extensive road to recovery.
"He is amazing. You wouldn't know looking at him that he is fighting this," mother Emma Labuschagne told The Sun. "It's hard to believe he's going through what he is. He's a miracle."
Michael was a healthy 8 pound 6 ounce baby when he was born in December, Labuschagne said in a video. However, in March, when he was about 14 weeks old, he suffered from heart failure. He was taken to a hospital and put into a coma. He awoke five days later, less than 10% of patients that young survive.
During this time he was diagnosed with a rare heart condition called cardiac fibroma, a tumor on the heart. He was fitted with a pacemaker and defibrillator.
The family, who are from Bristol, England, hope to raise enough money for a special surgery to remove the tumor at Boston Children’s Hospital. There is no hospital able to conduct the procedure in England.
"Boston Children's Hospital, ranked #1 (pediatric) hospital in the world, has quoted us $147,000 which converts to approximately £116,000 for the procedure," Labuschagne wrote on a GoFundMe account. "The cardiac surgeons at Boston are *Fact* the best cardiac surgeons in the world and they have done this operation several times."
The account has raised more than $69,000 as of Saturday night.
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