POSTED 9:47 PM, MAY 30, 2015, BY SARAH KRUEGER
SUMMERFIELD, N.C. – After months in the hospital suffering from a rare heart condition, Baby Jax is finally back home in the Piedmont.
“It feels amazing to be able to be a mom again,” said mother Mercedes Bunton. “It’s my job now. Not to watch some other nurses take care of him 24/7.”
Jax was diagnosed with a rare form of heart disease when he was only a few months old, and was placed on life support at Duke Hospital. To survive, he needed a heart transplant and he needed it fast.
In March, he got it.
“We feel very blessed,” said father Chris Bunton. “He received a very huge gift and we’re just excited for that and thrilled for that.”
Two months later, the family got the all clear to return home.
Now, Mercedes and Chris can hold their son again, and help him learn normal baby things.
“He’s a little delayed on some of his milestones,” Chris Bunton said. “He laid on his back for four months in the hospital, so he’s a little behind there.”
Jax still makes weekly trips to Duke Hospital for check-ups, and will perhaps need another heart transplant in the future as he gets older.
But his dad says, as Jax grows, there’s one thing he’ll make very clear to his son.
“You can go through anything. There’s nothing you can’t do. Look what you’ve already been through.”
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