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Young Boy Gifted a Second Chance at Life

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DARIN COULTER – ‘Our son Owen wasn't feeling good, and when I touched him, he was ice cold. Be like, ‘Should we go to the E.R. now or wait?’"

KRISTIN COULTER – ‘He also turned pale white. We noticed his ankles were turning slightly purplish, and at that time Darin and I just sort of looked at each other and we said, ‘Let's go.’”

“As we were driving, Owen started throwing up in the back of my truck,” Darin said. “That was when the prayer started, you know, just praying that everything was going to be okay.”

Kristin continued, “I had suspicions that obviously this was more serious than your typical flu. I had no idea that it would turn into the next most traumatic 24 hours of our life.”

“We get into the ER,” said Darin, “we were there maybe 10 minutes, and then he said, ‘Dad, I gotta go to the bathroom.’”

“He said it again, ‘Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom,’” Kristin paused, “at that time I looked up at the monitor and there was just a flat line. Everything stopped. I didn't hear anything, I didn't see anything, I almost felt like I went numb.”

“And then he would get a heartbeat back and we'd see it on there, you know, strong and regular,” recounted Darin. “And then it would just be like ‘boom, boom, boom, boom’, and just back to CPR again.”

Kristin said, “I fell to my knees and I completely surrendered, and I began to pray.”

“Forty-five minutes went by, then fifty-nine minutes,” Darin said solemnly. “The doctor’s with me and he goes, ‘you know,’ And I go, ‘Man, I know. You guys did everything you guys could.’”

“At that point, we have one, sort of last ditch effort,” Kristin said, “Another physician joins the care team. And he suggests this life support machine called an ‘ECMO.’”

Dr. CARLOS MERY – CONGENITAL HEART SURGEON – “Essentially it's (the ECMO) doing the functions of the heart and the lungs. So that allows to stabilize the body and lets the heart rest. We put in a cannula, a tube in the artery and on the vein.”

Darin continued, “We’re already at an hour of CPR, then 30 more minutes of CPR to get the ECMO put on.”

“After the surgery had been completed,” Kristin updated, “the diagnosis is myocarditis, which is a type of virus that basically attacked his muscular system and attacked his heart.”

“He's stable at the moment,” said Darin, “(But) we don't know what kind of damage he has. Everything has basically failed. He's on a ventilator, his kidneys have failed, his heart is pumping, but very minimal.”

Dr. Mery said, “Our main concern because of the length of CPR, was that he would have a massive stroke. Within five minutes the brain cells will start dying.”

“The doctors were just saying, you know, ‘After 90 minutes of CPR, we've seen a spectrum of he's a vegetable or, you know, there'll be some deficits,’” said Darin, “So, what version of our son are we going to have?”

Kristin said, “We were really intentional from day one that we were going to rally as many people as we could to pray for Owen and pray for the physicians and the care team there at Dell.”

“By day five, they took him off the ECMO machine,” Darin said hopefully. “He was stable, his heart was pumping as best as it could. If God got us through this right here, we're praying for 100% that he's going to walk out of this hospital.”

Kristin remembered, “They said, ‘You know what? Let's see what he does without the ventilator.’”

TWELVES DAY IN THE HOSPITAL

CHRISTMAS EVE

“Darin stayed in the room with Owen,” Kristin said giving the play by play, “and I went down to the-the healing garden to get on my knees and pray. And Darin said – ‘He's asking for you, Kristin,’” she said reading her text message, “he's breathing on his own and he's asking for Mommy right now.’ Those were there best text messages I've ever received.”

“To know that he recognized us was such a huge win,” smiled Darin. “We both broke down in tears of joy. He’s gonna be, ‘good’ ya know.”

TWO MONTHS AFTER ONSET

“Our five-year-old Owen walked out fully healed, February 7th,” said Kristin joyfully. “God answered our prayers, He did.”

Dr. Mery said, “That he was basically dead for 90 minutes and that he was able to recover to the extent that he recovered, he's basically a normal child, I think that's amazing.”

Little Owen smiled and said, “My heart is strong. Jesus saved me.”

“Every day is a day of praise, you know,” said Darin. “That the Lord has given us a miracle it’s like, ‘Man, we got out Owen back.’”

“When I prayed to the Lord that day, ‘Please give me my Owen,’ He gave me Owen and more,” smiled Kristin. “I am looking forward to a Christmas where we are all together. Being able to not only celebrate Jesus' birth, but I am looking forward to being able to celebrate a second chance that Owen has been given and gifted.”


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