Family looks for help with medical expenses as 2-year-old recovers from open-heart surgery

CEDAR CITY, Utah (KUTV) — A St. George family has been in the ICU today for what they call the most frightening time of their lives.

Their 2-year-old son Silas is recovering from open-heart surgery and may have to lose several limbs.

Doctors said there’s a high chance Silas loses his left leg, and a 50-50 chance for his right above the knee. He might lose both his hands, or just his fingers. There’s also a good chance of needing reconstructive plastic surgery.

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He’s been in Salt Lake for the past week, but it’s been a long journey since first looking for help in St. George.

Devonea Askey first took Silas to St. George Regional Hospital for a high fever and severe cough.

“They sent us home. He still had a fever of 102.9. We went home. The next day, he was having trouble walking on his right leg,” Askey, Silas’ mom, said.

Three times he was brought in and sent home under the belief it was various rhinovirus symptoms.

“They told us, you know, ‘He’s fine. It’s just the rhinovirus. He’s sore. Let it run its course,’” Askey said.

Symptoms then turned more severe.

“Pulled the blanket off of him and the entire bottom half of his body was blue and purple, and his lips were blue,” Askey said.

Doctors ran blood tests, X-rays, CT scans and more, finding that Silas had a blood clot in his leg and his heart rate at 200 bpm. He was flown to Salt Lake Primary Children’s Hospital, where a lack of blood flow gave him cardiac arrest and the need for open-heart surgery.

“They came to us and basically told us, you know, ‘This is his last chance at survival. You either pull the plug or we need to do this operation,’” Askey said.

Gabriel Martinez, Silas’ dad, said the moment was overwhelming.

“My body couldn’t stop shaking, and I just couldn’t even really process anything that was going on,” Martinez said.

The surgery was a success. Doctors say Silas had Strep A that turned to sepsis. He’s recovering now but awaiting news on having to lose any limbs.

His parents say they know life will look completely different for Silas, who loved being outside, running, riding his bike and swimming. They just want him to be okay.

“We want him to wake up and have a life, whether, you know, that’s without an arm and a leg or, you know, anything. We just want him, we want him to be here,” Askey said.

Martinez said parents should cherish the time they have with their children.

“Make sure just to love your kid as much as possible, because you never know when something can happen, something like this, and it’s like a nightmare that never ends for a parent that just didn’t fully get to experience that whole life with their kids,” Martinez said.

There’s a GoFundMe out because the parents have been at his side, which they said comes with unexpected medical expenses, travel costs, meals and time away from work that have quickly added up.

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