The parents of a baby diagnosed with a rare tumour no surgeon in the UK can operate on are now able to take him to the US thanks to more than £160,000 in public donations – including from Harry Redknapp.
Michael Labuschagne appeared to be a healthy baby until he suffered heart failure at his home in Bristol on 15 March, aged 14 weeks and three days.
Paramedics managed to save his life and the little boy, now 10 months old, became one of the 10% of patients who survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
But while he was in an induced coma, his parents, Emma and Stuart Labuschagne, were told he had a rare disease called cardiac fibroma – a tumour attached to the septum inside his heart's left chamber.
The parents, who have three children, were told it was so rare only a handful of patients had ever been diagnosed in the UK, but there were no doctors in the country who could perform the surgery to remove the tumour.
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After scouring the internet and getting in touch with parents of other children around the world with cardiac fibroma, they found a children's hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, that performs the surgery and has a 100% survival rate over the past 10 years.
Mrs Labuschagne, a shop worker, told Sky News: "When the doctors told us about Michael's diagnosis we were devastated, we felt we were waiting for him to fade away and when we found out about Boston we didn't really believe it.
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"A lot of people were sceptical and thought 'they're holding onto false hope' – but actually it's just amazing, it's a miracle."
But the surgery comes at a price – about £115,000 without flights and accommodation – so the couple started a Gofundme page on 11 October.
On Monday, their £120,000 target was surpassed and by the afternoon more than £164,000 had been raised.
"Donations were pretty steady at the start, from friends and family, and I got excited because at 4pm on Sunday we got to the halfway mark," said Mrs Labuschagne.
"Harry Redknapp – he's a friend of a friend – made a video a few days before asking people to donate and we saw a surge but I was trying not to check it.
"Then at about midnight on Sunday it suddenly went over the £120,000 target. I stayed up until 2am and watched it go over.
"We can't quite believe it, we're just astounded. We're so grateful for everybody's kindness and now we'll be able to cover anything extra for Michael's surgery like antibiotics or oxygen.
"But even if we hadn't had such incredible generosity, we would have somehow found a way to get the surgery.
"When it's your child and in the situation we're in – money doesn't really come into the question when there's a lot of evidence. They could have quoted us any amount and we'd have paid it."
