Meet Pharis! He was born on April 11, 2019. Pharis was discharged from the hospital the day after he was born, after experiencing unstable temperatures and sugar levels in the hospital. When he and his family got home, his parents knew that something wasn’t quite right. Pharis was very fussy during the night, and then he drifted into a deep sleep. He became very lethargic the following day. He wouldn’t eat, and he felt cold to the touch. His parents checked his temperature and it was very low, so they rushed him back to the ER. When they arrived, his temperature and sugar were dangerously low. Doctors began running tests and giving him medicines to try to help, but nothing was working. Then, his oxygen dropped. Pharis was transferred to a different hospital with a higher level NICU where they placed him in isolation and continued running tests.

On April 16 his parents received a call from his pediatrician asking them to come in as soon as possible because Pharis’s newborn screening came back positive for MCADD. Because Pharis and his family were in the NICU in El Paso, Texas, they became coordinating care with a neonatologist. A second round of testing was completed, and they were again transferred to a military hospital in San Antonio to confer with a metabolic team. While there, the metabolic team taught Pharis’s family about MCADD, how to help Pharis, set up a care plan, and provided Pharis’s family with the medicine he needed.

Pharis remained very sleepy and not as active as he should have been for about three weeks. Pharis’s parents were told by many doctors that had they not taken Pharis to the ER that he would not have made it through the night. Pharis’s mom said, “God was watching over our sweet boy, and we are so thankful that He took care of Pharis during his metabolic crisis. Every day we are reminded that God created Pharis for a special purpose and He does not make mistakes!” Pharis is now 6 months old, doing great, and eating like a champ!