A young boy is set to undergo surgery after doctors finally discovered the shocking reason for his cough after five years.
Eight-year-old Marley, from Adelaide, developed a bad cough when he was two. He was diagnosed with asthma and given a puffer, but it did little to help him. For several years he constantly coughed and had breathing difficulties.
His Dad Jay Enjakovic said they thought something did not add up, so the family of four vowed to find the reason behind Marley’s poor health.
“With Marley in the last few years playing a lot of sport and football and basketball, it slowly went downhill pretty quick. He couldn’t run out his games, coughing a lot more, bringing a lot of food up, bringing water up every time he ate,” Jay told the Today Show.
“That’s when Skye and I really pressed and pushed and asked more questions. We really wanted an answer because we had a feeling it was not asthma.”
After multiple trips in and out of the hospital, Marley’s condition reached a breaking point in December of last year when he became “quite critical” and an ambulance was called for him.
Doctors ordered an x-ray when he arrived, but Marley’s mother Skye Enjakovic said they made one crucial change.
“Luckily his x-ray pictures were taken a little bit higher up this time and they realized there was something going on with his esophagus and his trachea,” she said.
Marley’s surgeon later told his nervous parents that their son had been diagnosed with tracheoesophageal fistula.
However, in the process of surgery, doctors discovered a small plastic flower, the type used in arts and crafts, lodged in Marley’s throat.
Enjakovic said she was “absolutely shocked” at the discovery, but also “really relieved” she finally had an answer.
“My main concern at that point in time was that he was actually born with that condition. Because if he was born with it, he would have had other issues. To know it was caused by a foreign body, it was a slight bit of relief for me,” She said.
Though doctors were successfully able to remove the toy, Marley’s symptoms ended up returning due to damage to his esophagus.
He was taken to the hospital and had to be placed on a feeding tube for four months, but now is now set to undergo surgery to repair the damage.
Watch the video report below for more details:
Source: AWM
