Boyle family’s newborn son in fight for his life
A fundraising web page is up to help pay bills
Fifteen years ago, an accident sent Brian Boyle into a fight for his life. Now his newborn son faces a similar battle, and the family is reaching out to the community that Boyle says have always been ardent supporters of theirs.
In 2004, Boyle was a recent graduate of Maurice J. McDonough High School in Pomfret when he was involved in a devastating car wreck. Boyle’s car was totaled, and he nearly died. The force of the crash was so severe it moved his heart all the way across his chest, among other injuries.
He was in a coma for two months and faced an uphill battle, but Boyle made a full recovery and has since made himself into a successful competitive athlete. In the years since, Boyle has also written “Iron Heart: The True Story
of How I Came Back From the Dead,” which recounts the experience and his recovery. Boyle also shares his story at speaking engagements.
Now, the Boyle family faces their next medical battle.
Boyle and his wife, Pamela, learned in December 2018 that they were expecting their second child when she was hospitalized after experiencing severe abdominal pain. She was suffering from appendicitis, they learned, and needed an appendectomy, which Boyle said they learned from doctors might cause her to have a miscarriage.
Both mother and baby survived the surgery, and Brian and Pamela began looking forward to the 20-week ultrasound appointment.
That appointment, Boyle said, is when everything changed. They learned their as-yet-unborn son, Liam, was facing “several complex cardiac defects,” Boyle said.
Still, the couple and their baby daughter Clara moved ahead with a positive attitude, and Liam was born Aug. 21. Baby Liam’s fight began almost immediately, Boyle said, and will continue throughout his life.
In addition to Liam’s heart problems, he was also born with a condition called hetero ta xy in which the body’s organs are not in their proper places. Liam was also born without a spleen, Boyle said, and they’re unsure how the misplaced organs will affect his recovery in the future.
Just nine days after he was born on Aug. 30, Boyle told the Maryland Independent in a phone interview, Liam underwent the first of what will undoubtedly be many necessary surgeries over the course of his life. The procedure — which was to place a shunt to increase the blood flow to his lungs — took four hours, Boyle said. The next day was “a bit of a scary day,” Boyle said, as Liam ended up needing a second, unanticipated surgery to correct problems that had arisen following the first.
“He’s a little warrior,” Boyle said. “He’s a blessing.”
Since the first series of surgeries, Boyle said, Liam has been making a slow but steady improvement. However, his fight is just getting started: Boyle explained the necessary procedures will be palliative, and not cures for Liam’s health problems. The family lives about two hours away from where Liam is hospitalized, Boyle said, which only adds to the hefty medical expenses they will face.
To help the family, Boyle said, his cousin, Annapolis resident Hayley Garfield, created a Go Fund Me page that they hope to use to raise $100,000. Boyle said they arrived at that figure after researching the average cost incurred by families in similar situations. Currently, 193 donors had contributed $22,456.
Those donations, Boyle said, have been an invaluable source of “inspiration and support” as his family fights this newest fight.
“The community has been amazing, just so supportive,” Boyle said. “The support has meant the world to us. It’s been a roller coaster of emotion over the last days, so many unknowns . ... Fifteen years ago, I had so much support, and it’s come full circle.”
Garfield said she and her mother knew they wanted to help, and settled on this as the best option. Even before it was shared outside the family, Garfield said, they were pleasantly surprised by how many people donated: In the first two days, she said, they raised “a couple thousand dollars.”
Garfield said the decision to help her cousin and his family was an easy one.
“[Brian and Pamela] don’t ever think about themselves, and they’re the most positive, amazing people,” Garfield said. “They help so many people ... even people they don’t know. They always put other people first. We need to give back to them now. It’s their turn.”
To donate, goto www.gofundme.com/ f/ baby liam she art fund.