The parents of a 14-year-old boy in Tennessee made the difficult decision for doctors to amputate their son’s arms and legs to save his life, after diagnosis of pneumonia and toxic strep shock syndrome that led to cardiac arrest.
When the Mathias Uribe began to present “flu-like symptoms” in June, his parents Edgar Uribe and Catalina Cardona knew something was wrong.
He was taken to see doctors twiceaccording to the GoFundMe page set up to help cover the costs of Mathias’ eventual hospital stay.
According to NewsChannel5, while at the local hospital, Matias’ illness he quickly progressed into septic shock and went into cardiac arrest for six minutes. The teenager was airlifted to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital. Hospital at Vanderbilt, where an ECMO machine was available.
The Mayo Clinic describes the ECMO machine as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, in which blood is pumped outside of someone’s body into a heart-lung machine in life-threatening situations when the patient’s heart and lungs need help to heal.
“We come to you with heavy hearts to share some difficult news about our beloved son,” the GoFundMe message begins, explaining how “the world of the family fell apart” on June 30 when Mathias was taken to the emergency room, “where his heart stopped”.
Dr. Katherine Boyle, the assistant professor of Pediatric Critical Care at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital who led Mathias’ care team, told WSMV that boy’s medical condition ‘extremely rare’.
“Sometimes, when you get the flu, it sets you up for a bacterial infection. But even then, most kids don’t get as sick as Matthias did,” Boyle said.
On July 12, as Mathias’ heart and lungs improved, the medical team removed him from ECMO therapy.
On July 18, he was taken off the ventilator as his health continued to improve.
The GoFundMe announcement notes that “after 20 days of intensive care, we were told his limbs were damaged”. After consulting with the teenager’s medical team, Matias’ parents made the difficult decision to have doctors amputate his arms and legs.
“The flow wasn’t reaching all of his limbs, so they had to amputate all four of his limbs,” Mathias’ father told WSMV.
Matias reportedly underwent surgery on July 25 to remove his left leg above the knee and his right below the knee. The amputation operation both hands above the wrist it happened on August 1st.
“I said when we got to the doctors ‘please don’t use the word amputationMathias’ mother told WSMV. Let’s use “remove”.
Matias’ parents expect he will be in hospital for another month, where the teenager has already spent more than two months. Looking for prosthodontics and restoratives in the Atlanta areaaccording to WSMV.
Both parents are asking for “support, love and prayers” as their son continues his recovery.
14-year-old Matias Uribe is a particularly talented pianist and his parents hope to hear their son play the piano again with the help of additional limbs, which he will soon be able to acquire.
Source: News Beast
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