Polish toddler survives ordeal

KRAKOW, POLAND — Just weeks ago he was near death, with almost no heart beat and body temperature at 55 degrees.

On Thursday, little Adam, the Polish toddler found Nov. 30 in subfreezing temperatures, left the hospital, walking by his mom’s side, his life saved by a string of professionals.

“We feel extremely lucky that we can go back home with our son, who is almost fully able-bodied again,” said the boy’s mother, identified only as Paulina.

Adam — age 2 years 6 months— still needs rehabilitation at home, but his condition is “all that we were hoping for,” said Janusz Skalski, a children’s heart surgeon who oversaw bringing the boy back from deep hypothermia at the children’s hospital in Krakow, in southern Poland.

Adam “plays, frolics, runs, he can even be unruly,” Skalski told reporters. “He behaves exactly the way he should behave.”

He said Adam’s ordeal did not affect his intellectual development.

At a news conference, Adam walked by himself — some movements a bit exaggerated — and played with small toys and a mobile phone, even though his fingers are still a little cramped.