Doctors remove 14-year-old boy’s hands and feet after he shows flu-like symptoms
A 14-year-old boy and piano starlet has had both his hands and feet amputated to save his life after he started showing flu-like symptoms.
Mathias Uribe had the sort of symptoms you'd expect to see with a cold or flu, however, when they turned almost deadly his parents rushed him to hospital. In the end, the family, from Tennessee, had to make the difficult decision to amputate all four of Mathias' limbs.
Edgar and Catalina Uribe said they still see a future where their son can use his feet to run and hands to play beautiful melodies on the piano, but right now, they're just glad he's still alive. Catalina said: "Right now, for me, it is really hard to watch all of those videos, but at the same time I look at him and I'm like, 'He's here'."
Though his parents find it hard to look back on videos before their son got sick, they hope he'll be running and playing the piano again with the help of prosthetics (4)For the last two months, Mathias has been recovering at the Monroe Carrel Junior Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. He ended up there after being diagnosed with pneumonia and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome and going into cardiac arrest.
The teenager was also put onto a life-supporting ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, similar to a heart-lung by-pass machine, for almost two weeks, saving his life. Edgar explained: "That [blood] flow wasn't getting to all of his extremities, so they had to amputate all of his four extremities."
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
"I said when we got to the doctors when we came there, 'Please don't use the word amputation'," said Catalina. "Let's use, 'Remove'."
Head of Mathias' care team is Dr Katie Boyle, an ICU paediatrician, who worked with her colleagues to try and save as much of Mathias' limbs as possible. She said his condition is rare, and something she hardly ever sees.
She explained: "It's extremely rare. Sometimes when you get the flu it does set you up for a bacterial infection. But even then, most kids don't get nearly as sick as Mathias did."
Mathias' parents, Catalina and Edgar Uribe, made the difficult decision to have their son's limbs amputated (4)Dr Boyle added that there was nothing Mathias' parents could have done sooner to prevent their son's amputations. She advised parents to make sure their children get their flu jabs and monitor them when they're sick to see if they develop a high fever, cannot drink fluids, or refuse to wake up if they're asleep.
If any of these symptoms occur, they should be taken to hospital. So far, Mathias has gone through almost a dozen surgeries, and his care team said he still has a few more to come.
Edgar and Catalina hope he will be able to function with prosthetic limbs when he does leave the hospital. Catalina recalled a conversation she had with her son, where she said: "You are going to have an amazing life.
"You are going to go to [MIT]. You are going to do whatever you want to do. You don't have limits because you are here Mathias, you are here."
Mathias' parents have said they expect him to spend another month or so in the hospital. Now, they're looking at a place in Atlanta for Mathias to receive prosthetics and rehabilitation.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help support Mathias' recovery. Edgar simply said: "I told him we are going to be your arms and legs until we figure all of this out."
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
