11-year-old learning to walk and talk again after tonsil surgery was ‘botched'

Independent

09-04-2025

An 11-year-old Wisconsin boy is now regaining the strength to walk and talk again after a routine tonsillitis surgery was 'botched,' landing him in a coma, his family says.
Liam Klaver underwent surgery to remove his tonsils on March 17. But the routine procedure - that half a million people undergo each year - went awry, causing the child to slowly bleed and go into cardiac arrest. He's now able to speak a few words and sit up after a grueling few weeks in the hospital, his family said.
'He can say a few words, but it does hurt and [is] hard to understand,' the family wrote April 6 on their GoFundMe. 'Today he tried to take a few steps and almost fell. He really wants to come home!' He was able to pull himself up and into a wheelchair.
'Right now, he can do thumbs up, thumbs down, and give you a squeeze,' his grandmother Tanya Coye told TMJ4.
When the boy returned home after surgery, he didn't seem to be healing properly — and he ended up throwing up two liters of blood, according to the GoFundMe page.
Four days after his initial surgery, his family rushed him to the hospital, where doctors discovered a 'post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage in his right carotid artery.' This artery, one of two that supplies blood to the brain, was leaking, causing him to bleed to death, the parents said.
He then underwent an emergency second surgery days later, in which Liam needed nine units of blood. The child then went into cardiac arrest.
'He coded on the operating table for 10 minutes before doctors were able to revive him,' the fundraiser stated, noting he was then intubated, put on paralytic medications and heavily sedated. Although initial tests showed he didn't suffer any brain damage, other issues emerged that doctors predict will take months to heal, according to the page.
After a few days of weaning off of sedation and the medications, on March 31, doctors removed Liam from a ventilator. Ten days after he was first intubated, he was able to breathe on his own and he started to wake up in the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit.
'Liam the past few days is becoming more alert and has started to ask questions,' his family said. His last memory is from lacrosse practice one day before the surgery, his family said. The 11-year-old has also become cognizant of the doctors coming in and out of the hospital room, which 'was starting to scare him more' and prompted him to ask questions about why he was there.
The boy cried and said he wanted to go home, but the family noted he is making great improvements each day.
After just another week, Liam was already regaining the ability to talk and walk a bit.
As of Wednesday morning, the GoFundMe had raised nearly $18,000. His page hopes to earn $50,000 to pay for his 'tremendous' medical bills.
The family did not disclose where the boy underwent the procedure.