Baby needs new heart to survive
DURHAM (WTVD) -- A little boy in North Carolina is hoping for a heart.
His condition is stumping doctors, but his parents are hopeful their little boy can survive if he gets a transplant.
These days, the family is trying to get their joy and the laughter wherever they can.
"I have to have a positive outlook. I have to have the faith that he's going to pull through," said father Chris Bunton.
Bunton and Mercedes Ingram are living a parents' worst fear. Their three-month-old baby boy, Jax, is in Duke Hospital barely hanging on.
"He was a little over two months. And then one day, he started breathing weird. And he was pale white," said Ingram.
"He then had cardiac arrest. That was kinda tough, seeing them perform CPR on your two month old baby," said Bunton.
Jax was diagnosed with a rare form of heart disease. Part of his heart is enlarged and too weak to pump blood throughout his body.
"This type of heart disease is unknown, and there's no cure," said Ingram.
For two weeks, Jax has been on life support at Duke Hospital.
His parents left their house in Greensboro and moved into the Ronald McDonald House in Durham to be close by and wait for progress.
"One minute you're playing with him and you're like 'Yes, this is the perfect life.' And then the next, he's fighting for his life," said Ingram.
"It's very difficult because he's lying in a bed," said Bunton. "We haven't been able to pick him up and hold him for two weeks."
The only hope for Jax is a heart transplant, and it has to come within the next six to nine months.
"If he does not get a heart in that span's time, he will die," said Ingram.
For now the family is taking it day by day.
"What gets us through is just his smile," said Bunton.
"Oh God, yeah. He has tubes down his throat and he was like smiling through the tubes," said Ingram.
This Christmas and every day after they'll be praying for a miracle.
"For him, we can't give up," said Bunton. "That's the mentality we have. Just can't."
