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Infant Tackles Re-Learning Basic Functions Of Life After Brain Aneurysm

DETROIT (WWJ) - A metro Detroit couple was happily raising their toddler and newborn twins when a medical emergency struck.

One morning last September, Kathy Jannell's three month-old son William vomited, then stopped breathing.

Beaumont neurosurgeons diagnosed a ruptured brain aneurysm, and performed emergency surgery to save William's life.

William Janelle and mom
William Janelle and mom.
William Janelle and mom
William Janelle and mom.

"When he came out of surgery, they were pretty honest with us that he was an extremely sick boy, and that he was in critical condition and that we really just had to take it minute by minute," said Jannell. "Because he was on a ventilator and a feeding tube and it was life's scariest moment."

Doctors say William's still-developing brain makes it tough to give a long-term prognosis, but he's re-learned to drink, eat and even babble through intensive therapy.

William will celebrate his first birthday later this month.

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