Local community rallies to get medical equipment for 2-year-old boy facing rare heart condition

MCMECHEN, W.Va. (WTRF) — One local community is rallying together to help save the life of a 2-year-old boy who is facing something that not many young children ever deal with.

On July 5th, Laiden Schaefer’s life was suddenly in jeopardy when the 2-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest at his home in McMechen.

His parents, who are members of the McMechen Volunteer Fire Department, began performing CPR as they rushed him to WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital.

The Chief of McMechen Volunteer Fire Department, John Davis, says after 30 to 40 minutes, doctors and nurses were able to resuscitate Laiden, but the frightening evening was not over.

They transferred the patient from Reynolds to WVU Children’s, where he is currently with a rare heart condition. The baby developed myocarditis, which is rare for a child that age. We normally don’t see cardiac arrests in two-year-olds.”

Chief John Davis, McMechen Volunteer Fire Department

After being transferred to Morgantown, Laiden was admitted into the pediatric intensive care unit, where he went into cardiac arrest for a second time and had to be resuscitated and put on life support machines.

Laiden is now off all life support, but due to his rare condition, he could go back into cardiac arrest at any time.

On behalf of Laiden’s family, the McMechen Volunteer Fire Department is raising money to purchase a pediatric AED, which will be vital when he returns home.

Locally, we don’t have a dedicated pediatric AED that we can give them, and that needs to be in their house so the moment something happens, they can use it, and early defibrillation is what saves lives. The baby appears to be just a little bit too small for the equipment that WVU uses and when they come home, they’re going to need some protection for this child in case it happens again.”

Chief John Davis, McMechen Volunteer Fire Department

Chief Davis says the news has been devastating, but his team is doing everything it can to help a family that is one of its own.

Many of them have really put the effort in, and they’re really doing a good drive to help raise money and take care of this family and any needs they have. I know that we’re probably going to be transporting the baby to a rehab center and we’re going to take care of that. So, there’s going to be a lot of different things that this family needs throughout the next couple of years. It’s important to unite over this for us personally, because this is one of our family.”

Chief John Davis, McMechen Volunteer Fire Department

As Laiden waits to enter an inpatient rehabilitation center, his rehab diagnosis and chances of recovery are still unknown.

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