No. 2 Benton boy with rare condition uses birthday to raise funds for family of late detective
If you saw him at play, you would never guess that the energetic, highly outgoing, animal-loving Halox Hern was suffering from a one-in-a-million genetic mutation.
Potential health problems were first noticed during Halox’s mother, Heather Hern’s, 20-week check-up, where doctors informed
Halox’s parents that he would likely have some kind of hand abnormality.
Halox, who turned four in 2023, chose a police officer theme for his birthday party.
Two days before the party, the Benton Police Department held their procession for Det. Lett who passed away on Nov. 8.
“He’s been obsessed with police officers since he was born,” said Hern. “When Detective Lett passed, it was an opportunity for us to go down the road and teach him a little bit about honor, and show him what happens when one does pass.”
It was Halox who spoke up and said he wanted to do something nice at his party for the police officers, and thus the decision was made to raise funds for the Lett family instead of gifts for Halox.
“Halox can do anything and everything you or I can do. He just may need to modify it a little bit,” said Hern. “And don’t tell the boy he can’t do something. He will find every way to do it himself.”
Halox was born with four fingers on each hand and no thumbs, and his radial and ulnar bones were fused together at the elbow on the left arm.
Immediately after birth, Halox was X-rayed and tested for anything the doctors could think of and determined Halox simply had a hand abnormality.
“As we were going through all of that, he wasn’t eating like he was supposed to,” said Hern, whose worries were starting to increase. “He wasn’t gaining weight, he looked sick and frail.”
Each time Halox’s parents took him to a clinic or the ER, doctors could find nothing wrong, despite the parents’ insistence that Halox was struggling.
Little did anyone yet know, that Halox was facing a rare condition known as Holt-oram Syndrome (HOS) or heart-hand syndrome.
Eventually, Halox did test positive for RSV at an ER visit, but he was released after three weeks of hospitalization. Immediately on the ride home, Halox turned a blue-ish gray causing Hern to have to perform CPR herself on Halox to revive him.
“I finally said ‘We’re done. This is not an oxygen or RSV