2 days ago
'He wants to live in this world': Edmonton paramedic's infant son in need of heart transplant
As a paramedic, JC Apuada is trained to stay calm under pressure. But nothing could prepare him for the moment when his three-week-old boy's heart stopped beating.
Apuada performed CPR and helped save young Oliver's life but, over the past 53 days, his son has been fighting to stay alive through five more cardiac arrest episodes. Doctors at the Stollery Children's Hospital are still trying to diagnose what's causing his heart to give out.
'I just remember walking into the door with my (older) son Theodore after picking him up from daycare, and I heard my wife saying, 'Can you come here quick?' ' recalled Apuada.
'I went to the living room, and she was holding Oliver, and he just looked like a different baby. He was colourless, and he was barely breathing. She was asking if he was OK, and I just remember saying, 'I don't know.'
'We called 911, and I started CPR. It was so scary.'
After being rushed to the Stollery, doctors stabilized Oliver and performed a series of tests, but the following day he went into cardiac arrest again.
He was put on an Ecmo (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machine, which is a life support system for patients with severe heart problems.
It stabilized his heart for a period of time, but he continued to have cardiac arrest episodes — a pattern all the more mysterious because Oliver's twin sister has experienced no issues.
'They told us that this isn't sustainable anymore, which was very hard for us to hear,' said Apuada.
'When we've got a perfectly healthy twin baby (girl) at home, and our toddler is also healthy. They just kept telling us, 'We don't know what's causing this to happen.' '
Doctors told Apuada and his wife Britni that their next option was to place Oliver with a Berlin heart, which is a ventricular-assist device.
Oliver had to go through open heart surgery, and now has two external pumps that act as his heart.
Doctors have done a multitude of tests, including genetic testing on Oliver, JC and Britni, and also performed a biopsy during the open-heart surgery. Each test came back normal.
Now, JC and Britni have been told that the best course of action for their infant is for him to receive a new heart.
'They still don't have any answers,' said Apuada. 'It still doesn't really feel real. It's like we're living a nightmare, and we just can't wake up from it.'
Oliver will be placed on a donor list, but because of his age, they could be waiting for as long as up to two years.
Through all of the cardiac arrests, Oliver's heart has been shocked a total of nine times.
'I remember having a talk with my wife, and it hurts me to say, but when one of the arrests happened, they ended up shocking his heart twice, and I remember hearing my wife saying, 'I don't think he's going to make it,' and in the back of my head, I didn't know if he was going to come out of it — but he has,' said Apuada.
'It's been a wild roller-coaster. Just going from the lowest of the lows, and then you see him improve. But throughout all of this, all you have is hope to hold onto.'
The Apuadas have been thrown so much information, and faced decisions no parents should ever have to go through. JC admits they probably haven't processed everything they're truly going through right now — but they're staying as strong as they can despite so many unknowns.
A GoFundme has been set up to help support the family.
'The Stollery doctors are some of the best in the world. They're experts. But the reality is when those experts are telling us we don't have an answer for you, it's very hard,' said Apuada.
'We're going to proceed with a transplant, and he will get a new heart, but even then, they don't know if his body is going to do the same thing, because right now, they don't have answers.'
Apuada said his wife had no issues throughout the pregnancy. Outside of some minor hypertension one week before giving birth that led to her having a C-section, every ultrasound, blood work and other test came back with no concerns when Oliver and his twin sister Eloise were born.
They didn't have any complications when their oldest son was born, either.
Oliver remains in hospital, and as the Apuadas wait for him to be stabilized enough to go home, they also wait for that call for a new heart.
That's crystallized the stark reality of their situation, but also made them feel proud of Oliver, who keeps fighting despite having spent more time in hospital than at home in his young life.
'In order for Oliver to have a new heart, another family somewhere would have to go through a situation way worse than what we've gone through so far and I remember Britni saying that it's hard, because we were so close to being that family, too,' said Apuada.
'We take a lot of inspiration from Oliver. He wants to live in this world, and he's fighting for it and we're doing the best we can to do whatever it takes to get him through this.'
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