As a nurse, Lauren Furgason has seen her fair share of cardiac arrests.
But she didn’t expect it to happen to her 6-year-old son.
Todd Miller loves to play baseball, soccer and tennis. He spends his days riding his scooter and playing with his pets — two dogs, Hooper and Brody, and a cat, Lexie. He watches “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and plays Xbox Kinect when it rains.
Now, Todd lies in a hospital bed.
Last month, he collapsed at his after-school program at O2B Kids, 6680 W. Newberry Road. He was taken to North Florida Regional Medical Center, where he was resuscitated and transferred to UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital, Furgason said.
Furgason, 24, was at work at the Shands Trauma Intensive Care Unit when she got the call from her fiance, Brian Fryburg.
“It never crossed my mind that it could have been his heart,” she said.
Fryburg, 25, who had been home napping, arrived first.
Several O2B staff members and the hospital chaplain greeted him.
“When the hospital chaplain came over was sort of my ‘What happened to Todd?’ moment,” said Fryburg, a UF College of Veterinary Medicine graduate student.
Furgason said Todd’s biological father suffers from a heart condition called restrictive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — which causes the walls of the heart to be rigid and restricts blood flow. Todd has been monitored his entire life by a cardiologist, but he never showed signs of having the condition.
His last appointment was in October.
“He never complained of being tired,” Furgason said. “He never complained about not being able to keep up.”
The doctors believe Todd suffers from the same condition as his father. He has been on medication for his heart rhythm since the day he collapsed and remains in a half-conscious state.
“He’ll open his eyes, but it doesn’t always look like he’s looking at you,” Furgason said. “It looks like he’s looking through you.”
This week, he had surgery to place an automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator in his torso, which will shock his heart in the case of failure.
Todd will need rehabilitation therapy for brain damage he suffered in the 25 minutes between when he collapsed and when his heart started again, Furgason said. His brain was deprived of oxygen, leaving him with neurological deficits to his motor functions.
“We’re not sure how much he’ll recover from those,” she said. “That’s more of a wait-and-see game that we’re still playing.”
Furgason and Fryburg have been sleeping at the hospital frequently while neighbors and friends watch their pets.
“I’ve gone home for maybe four hours total, maybe five,” Fryburg said. “If Todd has a good day, I have a good day. If Todd has a bad day, I have a bad day.”
Michael Weber, 33, facility manager at O2B Kids, said Todd’s collapse was the first life-threatening situation he has dealt with in his 12-year career.
The after-school program made and signed a banner that hangs in Todd’s hospital room. Weber said Todd, who was about to play kickball when he collapsed, was always smiling.
“Todd is missed here,” he said.
There are two online fundraisers on Rally.org and GiveForward.com to help pay for Todd’s medical bills as well as the family’s normal monthly bills, since Furgason has taken temporary leave from work.
Furgason and Fryburg said they’re overwhelmed by the community’s support. Fryburg said the family is staying positive.
“In the end, no matter how much time it takes, we’ll have Todd back,” he said.
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 4/18/2014 under the headline "6-year-old son of Shands nurse slowly recovers after cardiac arrest"]
Brian Fryburg, Lauren Furgason and Todd Miller eat at the T-Rex Cafe in Orlando’s Downtown Disney. Todd went into cardiac arrest last month and has been in the hospital since.
