Why was Malcolm so sleepy on his family trip? The normally energetic 8-year-old seemed so tired and he threw up in the car. Parents Beth and Joe didn’t find that too out of the ordinary—Malcolm got car sick sometimes, and it was a long drive up to Maine. But, they started to worry when he fell asleep at the dinner table.
They brought him to a nearby urgent care center and later, the local emergency room. Neither place could figure out what was wrong. Early the next morning, Malcolm woke up in extreme pain. The family cut their trip short and got on the road. They hoped to take Malcolm to a hospital closer to home in Pennsylvania. In the car, it became clear that Malcolm needed help right away.
A split-second decision
Luckily, Boston Children’s Hospital was nearby. The parents knew it’d be the best place to get Malcolm the care he needed. They pulled into a gas station and called an ambulance.
Malcolm was rushed in and admitted right away. A child life specialist spent the afternoon with Malcolm’s three siblings. His parents dealt with the shocking news: Malcolm had a mass on his brain. A few hours later, the mass, which was an abscess, burst while he was getting an MRI. Over the course of a few days, their son had gone from perfectly healthy to needing emergency brain surgery.
A tough road ahead
The surgery was successful, but there were more challenges ahead. When Malcolm woke up, his brain pressure was dangerously high. To help him avoid unbearable pain and allow time for the pressure to go down, doctors put Malcolm in a medically induced coma. For 11 days, Beth and Joe did little else but watch Malcolm’s vitals and listen to the beeps and whirrs of his machines. During this time, Malcolm needed another surgery to drain excess fluid from his brain. Though the ordeal was scary for his parents, they felt grateful to the doctors and nurses who answered their questions and kept them comfortable every step of the way.
Back to being a kid
When Malcolm finally woke up from the coma, his family was overjoyed. He needed a breathing tube and physical therapy, but as the weeks went on, he grew stronger. After 34 days at Boston Children’s, he was discharged and began rehab treatment. Malcolm was determined throughout his recovery, and today, he’s home and thriving. He loves sports, especially basketball. He is back to playing sports year-round, including flag football, basketball, and baseball, and has recently taken up golf.
Today, his parents and siblings are happy to have him healthy and home. Malcolm says the doctors at Boston Children’s are his heroes.
