THERE’S A SAYING that life can change in an instant. That statement became a stark reality for the Austin family in 2014. Little did they know that a stomachache would totally alter the course of their son’s life and their own.
Looking back it’s hard for them to imagine the harrowing three-year medical journey that’s still ongoing, countless visits to doctors locally and overseas, hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical and travel expenses, surgeries, a quest that almost cost their only son his life, and a test of their strength and faith as a family.
At the start of 2014, Johnathan Austin was like any other active ten-year-old boy, playful, energetic, he enjoyed gymnastics and playing the piano, and was doing well at school
“Back then Johnathan was a student at Wills Primary School. He had eaten his breakfast along with his sister Jasmine. I took them to school and Johnathan threw up outside the car,” his father Stephen recalled. “I found it kind of bizarre when he said his tummy was hurting so I took him to see our family doctor. But after every meal, Johnathan continued to throw up.”
What further alarmed his parents was that upon closer examination the regurgitated food was undigested. Johnathan’s parents took him to see a local paediatrician who did an X-ray, which showed that Johnathan was constipated and recommended putting him on a laxative. They followed his advice, but Johnathan kept throwing up and losing weight.
By this time Johnathan was out of school for almost four weeks. With the weight loss and continual stomach pain, his parents took him to local paediatrician Dr Ranita Jhagroo.
“She suggested we go to the United States for treatment because Johnathan had been suffering for too long and there wasn’t a paediatric gastroenterologist here,” Stephen said. “She got us to go to Miami Children’s Hospital, which is now called Nicklaus Hospital.”
In Miami, the hospital ran a series of tests, including an endoscopy, on Johnathan, which revealed that he was refluxing 24 times in one hour in his throat, half of which was acid-based. It also showed that he had 80 per cent undigested food in his stomach.
After spending ten days, the doctors there prescribed medicine and Johnathan and his father were allowed to return home. But with the nausea and vomiting still occurring, it was suggested they return to Miami where Johnathan could be hospitalised. After another series of intensive tests at Nicklaus Hospital, doctors were able to diagnose the problem.
“It’s called slow emptying of the stomach or gastroparesis,” his father said. “They gave him a medicine called metoclopramide and within a day of taking it he had a meal for the first time in four months and it stayed down.”
The family decided to spend another week in Miami. During that outing Johnathan said he wanted a skateboard, which his parents bought him.
Throughout the summer of 2014 Johnathan still had pain, but not like before. Skateboarding became a means of release for him and he continued to hone his skills over the summer. For him that was a chance to reclaim some normalcy in his life.
The hospital had instructed them to wean down the dosage of etoclopramide by September because if it was taken longer than three months, he could develop a permanent tick. The parents reduced the dose from three to two a day and Johnathan started vomiting again. The doctors in Florida suggested putting it back to three doses but the vomiting still persisted.
“We called Dr Jhagroo and she said to have him admitted to Bayview and they gave him metoclopramide by IV,” his father recalled. “We spent a week in Bayview. Johnathan was so weak he had no energy to move. I called the doctors in Miami and they told us to return for a visit. We went back on September 30 while Diliah stayed behind with Jasmine.”
“When we arrived in Miami the doctor had to admit him,” Stephen said. “Johnathan was totally dehydrated, he was 52 pounds and the doctor said his organs would have started to shut down without nutrition. So they hustled him into a room where they put a tube through his nose right down to his intestines to feed him.”
Stephen spent a week and a half at the hospital watching his son, who was so weak that he had no motivation or energy to leave his room. Another parent in the room spoke to Johnathan and convinced him to go down to the playroom.
“When we got there we saw a little boy with a bald head suffering from cancer. Two days in a row we saw him, but the next day we didn’t.’
Johnathan asked his father where the boy had gone, but he told him he didn’t know.
“Johnathan then asked me why am I sick. I told him I don’t know,” Stephen said. “He said maybe it’s to make me stronger. I said maybe. He said, ‘Maybe it’s to make me stronger to help other people. But Daddy, how do you help other people?’ I said Johnathan what you’re doing now, being strong, is helping other people. You just continue to do that and we will find a way to help people by your story.”
Since July 2016 Johnathan has been given the all-clear and despite having the pacemaker can concentrate on his schoolwork and is determined to hone his skateboarding skills. This passion for skateboarding gives him renewed hope as he is a proud to be the youngest member of the Irie One Skateboard team.
What kept Johnathan’s parents going in the midst of this trial was the resilience their son showed throughout the many doctor’s visits, tests and surgeries. He, together with his family, decided to start a charity to help other children who would have to travel overseas for medical treatment.
Hs parents thought that sharing Johnathan’s journey in an effort to raise funds for the Wills Primary School Helping Hands Fund would be the best way to give back to children in need of medical care.
“We shared a video of Johnathan’s journey at his graduation ceremony and presented a cheque for BDS$5 000 which was collected by friends, family and strangers who saw the video online. Mrs George of Wills Helping Hands then dedicated a year of fundraising efforts and called it the Johnathan Austin Sick Kids Fund. The fund raised approximately BDS$25 000 and those funds were dedicated to helping children that could not afford to travel overseas for medical care or those who could not afford an operation.”
Last month, Johnathan returned to Miami for doctors to remove the feeding tube as he has been stable for a year.
“We are thankful to so many angels who have assisted us over this journey, from nurses to doctors to Sagicor and our friends, family and strangers who prayed and helped us cope throughout this journey, Stephen said.
To see them now they are a family whose commitment has been strengthened by the ordeal they’ve endured and the promise not only of complete healing for their son, but hope and help for other children who may one day have to face their own medical challenges.
This is an edited version of the Cover Story of this month’s Better Health magazine.
