Molly’s Kids: Gabriel Revis in hospital (and he got a puppy!)
Revis #Revis
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – Update on the great Gabriel Revis: He’s back in the hospital.
When we first started following Gabe’s journey in 2015, he was the 151st documented case in the world of a rare genetic disorder. He was given three days to live. He’s now 6 years old and continuing to prove doctors wrong.
Gabriel is a fighter. His mom, April, couldn’t be more proud. She cuddles and loves on him through every single medical up and down. Seeing them together is a beautiful thing.
Recently—Sunday, May 16—Gabriel’s heart stopped. April was the only one nearby.
“I had to do CPR to get it back started again,” April Revis said. “He’s still in the hospital now. They did an MRI and found he had a stroke while I was doing the CPR. Doctors say he should fully recover. Thank God. But he has been in lots of pain and is having a lot more seizures, which is all new.”
Miller Syndrome, what Gabe lives with, is a rare condition that mainly affects the development of someone’s face and limbs. He was born with three fingers on each hand, two toes on one foot, three toes on the other, and no left ear. In general, children born with Miller Syndrome have underdeveloped cheek bones and a very small lower jaw. Though it’s not directly connected to his diagnosis, Gabriel also only has one kidney. It works at 17 percent.
There have been so many issues in his young life, by the middle of last year his mom estimated he’d spent 85 percent of his life hospitalized.
Late last fall, she made a decision: Gabriel was coming home.
As she said then: “I want to let him be a little boy. Even though he has lots to handle, he is still happy. He always has that cute smile on his face, and is doing some sort of sign language. He loves to take things apart, then put them back together. I’m teaching him to write and color and he loves music. That’s why I want him to be a boy and live his life as fully as he can, and love on him from the comfort of our home.”
Things had been going well until this development.
April says they’re hanging in. She looks for the positive.
“I’m having a hard time but as long as Gabriel is okay, I’ll be okay,” she said. “He is my world. I would do anything for him. I had to take personal leave off work because of these recent changes in his health, and because it’s so hard to get enough home healthcare for him, I’m by myself all weekend with no nurses. But I’m not complaining. I never want to complain. He is my miracle son.”
I’ll say from a personal standpoint of knowing April now for years and watching this single, hard-working mom with her son, they are a remarkable duo. She always makes things sound a little shinier than the truth might be in an effort to do what she said: Not complain. One look at how she looks at him, says more than a thousand words here could describe.
“And I wanted to tell you, on a happier note, I got him a puppy,” April said. “He loves her! Her name is Daizi Luv.”
Doctors say Gabriel will be in the hospital until the second week of June, just to assure things are alright from the night his heart stopped on his doting mom.
Please, if you can, send a good thought.
As always, April, hang in there and thank you so much for sharing your “miracle son” with all of us.
-Molly
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