People are typically frightened of strangers approaching them and communicating. Especially when they’re with their children. But a mother was thankful to a stranger who wanted to speak with her about her son, since his intervention saved her son’s life. Sarah Love, the mother, was visiting a theme park near her home in Florida with her husband and their six-week-old infant, Lincoln. The baby’s five other siblings were there when a stranger saw him and approached the parents to comment on his looks, according to Good Morning America.
The mother noticed a man staring at her newborn baby, but decided to ignore it until he encountered them again later that day and approached her to speak. “He introduced himself and stated that he is a first responder. He said he observed Lincoln and how jaundiced he was, and he didn’t want to terrify us… but he simply believed Lincoln should get some medical treatment,” Love told the station. The man was a firefighter from a nearby county who wanted to raise the mother’s attention to what he witnessed.
The woman wasn’t terrified by the statement since she had recognized the symptoms herself, and the stranger was extremely calm when he pointed them out. Previously, a pediatrician had assured the woman that she had nothing to worry about. “Lincoln has had jaundice since he was born. His pediatrician appeared unconcerned at his baby’s well-child visit. She advised us to put him in the sunshine, hoping that it would clear up, and there were some other issues with him that we noted.” So, when the fireman informed her what he had witnessed, Love decided to contact her son’s physician again and have him looked at. She was instructed to take her infant to the hospital for bloodwork.
The youngster was admitted to the hospital and given IV fluids while physicians performed blood tests to determine the reason for his illness. They ultimately advised her to take the infant to Nemours, an Orlando-based specialized children’s hospital. The family went through a lengthy process of further tests and a liver biopsy before physicians determined what had happened. They determined that the newborn had Alagille syndrome, a hereditary condition affecting the liver and heart. The parents were astonished since their previous five children had been healthy.
“It seemed as if the carpet had been pulled out from beneath us. Throughout it all, there were great sensations of fear and uncertainty. I was glad for the amazing physicians we had, but I don’t think there’s much you can say to reassure a parent in that scenario,” the mother stated. She liked the comment she received at the park, which prompted her to get her kid tested. “It was that extra added bit of encouragement that we needed.” The woman stated that she lacked words to express how grateful she was.