The 7-year-old is slowly returning to normal life after suffering two birth defects and a stroke –

The boy, who was born with two congenital hearing impairments and suffered a paralysis that caused loss of sensation in half of his body, eventually recovers and starts a normal life.

130 miles west of Detroit, then four-year-old Max Weigel of Rockford, Michigan was born with an atrial septal defect (ASD), a hole in the upper chamber of the heart, and non-condensing cardiomyopathy in the left ventricle. occurs when the left ventricle fails.

Weigel suffered a stroke after surgery to close the hole in his heart, and his ailments had limited treatment options to save him and prevent him from permanently losing sensation in one of his bodies.

But doctors were able to give the young boy life-saving treatments, and now, after three years, he is starting to return to normal life and physically catch up with his peers.

When Weigel was four years old, a local pediatric cardiologist near Grand Rapids, Michigan recommended that she have surgery to correct her ASD.

If left untreated, ASD can cause the right side of the heart to enlarge and weaken, according to the Mayo Clinic.

It can also cause the person to suffer from hypertension later on, such as high blood pressure in the arteries.

Weigel was referred to the University of Michigan Mott Health CS Children’s Hospital, a pediatric surgery-specific intensive care facility; it was a decision that might have saved Max’s life as doctors would better prepare for a crisis.

On April 25, 2019, Mott’s doctors successfully completed the surgery and stitched the hole into the baby’s heart.

She initially responded well to surgery and even recovered earlier than initially expected, leaving her parents hopeful that she might be able to go home sooner than expected.

However, two days after the operation, he started to act erratically.

“I asked him what was going on and tried to talk to him, but he didn’t answer. When she started complaining, I knew something was wrong,” says Noel Weigel, Max’s mother.

Weigel (centre) initially responded well to surgery to close the heart, but had a stroke days later. Doctors at the University of Michigan performed an endovascular thrombectomy to remove a blood clot in the brain. He has since recovered well from the ordeal

In what he described as a “hurricane”, he sought help from the hospital to recover.

Doctors and nurses rushed into the room. Shortly after, she and her husband, Nick Weigel, learned that Max had a stroke.

“Max couldn’t speak and couldn’t feel the right side of his body,” Max’s father said.

His eyesight was also affected. Seeing the fear in their eyes, we felt helpless.’

Dr. Aditya Pandey, neurosurgeon at Mott.

Doctors decided that the only option for saving Weigel was endovascular thrombectomy, a procedure in which a catheter is inserted into an artery, then another device is inserted through the catheter to remove the clot.

“We inserted a catheter into an artery in his right leg and crossed it into the left carotid artery,” Pandey said.

“We then placed a smaller catheter to reach the clot, allowed the stent recipient to open and the clot to be removed. Within 24 hours it started to heal.

Had this surgery not been done, Weigel could have had potentially devastating consequences.

“He would have been crippled for life if he hadn’t had the surgery,” Pandey said.

Noel Weigel said, “When our son was hospitalized for the procedure, we put all our trust and confidence in Dr. We gave it to Pandey,” he said.

Max was partially paralyzed on the right side of his hidden body and partially lost his ability to speak due to the paralysis.

His family took him to physical, occupational, and speech therapy after he recovered, in hopes that he could still have a normal childhood despite his condition.

Now seven years old, Max is learning to speak again and has even become a nationally ranked BMX rider for his age group while living a normal life.