PO’IPU — Those cats with their nine lives don’t have much on Michael Basilio of ‘Ele’ele. Four times during his 20-year-life, he has been declared dead, and probably would have remained so except for special doctors in his life who
PO’IPU — Those cats with their nine lives don’t have much on Michael Basilio of ‘Ele’ele.
Four times during his 20-year-life, he has been declared dead, and probably would have remained so except for special doctors in his life who refused to give up on him and revived him.
After he was diagnosed with ventricular septal defect (literally a hole in the heart that causes extra blood to be pumped into the lungs) and other congenital (existing at birth) heart defects at age 3, Basilio’s parents were told their son wouldn’t live past 9.
“I probably would be looking down on you guys (from heaven),” Basilio said while looking down on blood donors from his place on stage at the Hyatt Regency Kauai Resort & Spa here during the annual Kaua’i donor recognition luncheon.
But specialized treatments and surgeries made possible in part because of volunteer blood donors has made it possible for Basilio to live something of an ordinary life, said Dr. Robyn Yim, Blood Bank of Hawaii president and medical director.
Basilio survived — sometimes barely — multiple heart surgeries after being born with arteries running to the wrong places within and between his heart and lungs.
The Kaua’i native and member of the Waimea High School Class of 2001 survived four “code blues,” the hospital term for a patient who has died.
Nervous before addressing nearly 100 volunteers and other special guests at the luncheon, Basilio gave a heartfelt “thank you for giving blood that lets me continue to enjoy my family and friends.”
The diagnosis at age 3 “haunted me for 11 years,” during which “it was hard growing up” not being able to ride a bicycle, play basketball or tether ball, sometimes being confined to a wheelchair at school, and having to watch his friends play during recess, he recalled.
At 14, he flew to San Diego Children’s Hospital, where he endured 22 hours of surgery followed by a three-week coma, another “code blue” and another three-month coma after that.
Surgeries in 1997 and 1999, during which he also suffered a collapsed lung that aborted that operation and resulted in his fourth “code blue,” made doctors wary of performing additional surgeries especially if he was doing better, he said.
“I lost a lot of blood,” and his mother, father and sister all had to give blood for him in advance of the surgeries, he said.
“He’s my hero, this guy,” said Tony Ching, a former University of Hawai’i men’s volleyball player who needed brain surgery after sustaining an accident while riding a moped on O’ahu.
Associate Editor Paul C. Curtis may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net.
