Most parents of toddlers worry about sleep habits and sniffles, but heart failure isnt usually a concern.It certainly wasnt on the Thomases radar when their 2-year-old son went into sudden cardiac arrest in the middle of the night at their Illinois home.When the child woke up screaming, his parents ran into the room.HODA KOTB REVEALS DAUGHTER'S CONCERNING DIAGNOSIS INFLUENCED HER EXIT FROM 'TODAY'"Hearing him scream out was alarming, as he usually slept soundly, and it was a horrible cry," Stephanie Thomas told Fox News Digital."When I went into his room, he continued to scream out and then face-plant into his crib."At first, the Thomases thought their son was just having a night terror, so Stephanie who is a clinical dietitian at OSF HealthCare Childrens Hospital of Illinois sat next to his crib with her hand on his back, trying to calm him down."When he finally settled, I could feel his breathing slowly come to a stop," she recalled. "I picked him up out of his crib and placed him on the floor. With him being unresponsive, I felt for a pulse and started CPR.""I was petrified and confused about how my seemingly healthy 2-year-old was in this situation."As Stephanie performed CPR, her husband, Kris, called 911.Emergency responders rushed the boy to OSF HealthCare. After 11 days of testing, he was diagnosed with Brugada syndrome, a very rare heart condition that can cause sudden cardiac arrest and death.Though there can be some signs of Brugada syndrome, such as fainting or passing out, the condition is often not discovered until cardiac arrest occurs.The Thomases son had a similar incident about a month before the cardiac arrest, which they now believe may have been his first episode.AI BREAKTHROUGH ALLOWS DOCTORS TO 'SEE' DANGEROUS BLOOD CLOTS FORMING"He woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible scream, had some gasping and was hard to calm," Stephanie recalled. "It was only a short period, and once he calmed, he seemed normal. We assumed it was a night terror."As Brugada syndrome is often inherited, the Thomases were both tested for genetic abnormalities, but it was determined that their son's syndrome is a "mosaic defect," which is when there are two or more genetically different sets of cells in the body.The OSF team implanted the young boy with an EV-ICD (extravascular implantable cardioverter-defibrillator), which is positioned outside the heart's blood vessels. It is designed to detect and correct any abnormal heart rhythms.This was the first time the device was implanted in a child at such a young age, the hospital noted in a press release.Since the first episode, the Thomases son has been hospitalized six more times. Each time an abnormal heart rhythm is detected, the EV-ICD delivers a "life-saving shock" to the boys heart."Our son acts and appears healthy more than 99% of the time, until his heart gets into an arrhythmia that his body and medication cannot manage on their own," Stephanie told Fox News Digital. "In these cases, he receives a shock from his ICD."CDC REMOVES COVID VACCINE RECOMMENDATION FOR HEALTHY CHILDREN AND PREGNANT WOMENThe boy has been readmitted to the hospital due to arrhythmias and medication titration seven times since his initial discharge, his mother added.Sunita Ferns, M.D., a pediatric electrophysiologist at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center who is treating the Thomases' son, noted that her young patient is now "married to cardiology.""We monitor these devices constantly. If we see any arrhythmia in the background, despite the medication he's on, we can offer him other technologies," Dr. Ferns said in the OSF press release."Ablative technologies can help modify the substrate, which is the tissue that's responsible for the bad rhythm."BABY WITH FATAL BRAIN DISORDER SAVED BY ANONYMOUS $47K DONATIONTo help control his arrhythmias, the boy also takes a compounded oral medication every six hours, which he will take for the rest of his life.The parents said it can be challenging to navigate the episodes with a 2-year-old who cant understand whats happening."The hardest part is when he says things like, I cant use the elephant blankie because it shocked me," Stephanie said. "He makes these associations between being shocked and the objects or places around him."There are specific triggers for the boys arrhythmias, the Thomases have learned, such as low-grade fevers and even slight illnesses, like a cold.CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER"It is vital that we keep him as healthy as we can which can be challenging with him being an active 2-year-old and having a 4-year-old," Stephanie said."We make sure that he stays up to date on his and our whole family's vaccines. We do our best to tightly regulate any temperatures."The Thomases now aim to raise awareness of the importance of having CPR training, being alert to warning signs and putting an emergency plan in place.As a healthcare employee, Stephanie has maintained her Basic Life Support (BLS) certification for over 10 years.For more Health articles, visitwww.foxnews.com/health"I have always said that I work with doctors and nurses, so felt that this was something I would never use but the doctors and nurses were not in my house the night my son went into cardiac arrest, so it was left to me."

When then President-elect Donald Trump declared to me on January 5 of this year that "My preference is one big, as I say, one big, beautiful bill," he started a snowball rolling down Congressional Hill that has gathered momentum and should be on his desk, perhaps by July 4, and certainly not later than Labor Day weekend. Trump willed H.R. 1 into being the way he willed his return to the Oval Office: By speaking clearly and repeatedly about what had to be done. Turns out the commander-in-chief is also the "closer-in-chief."Of course, the House and Senate GOP knew they could not have allowed Trumps 2017 triumph of his first tax bill to expire at the end of this year and thus shatter an economy recovering its bearings and its potential for great growth after the disastrous years of inflation unleashed by former President Joe Bidens reckless looting of the federal treasury. But neither did it seem likely they could make the Trump tax code permanent as well as add more cuts to taxable income for folks who depend on tips, for seniors and for homeowners in states with burdensome tax rates.SCOOP: HOUSE GOP MEMO HIGHLIGHTS REPUBLICAN WINS IN TRUMP'S 'BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL'But the president worked so closely with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority LeaderSteve Scaliseand Majority Whip Tom Emmer that he not only got the "one, big, beautiful bill" through the House, he got what he promised on the campaign trail last year. Now he seems likely to help Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate GOP Whip Mike Barrasso and Conference Chair Senator Tom Cotton pilot H.R. 1 through the narrows of that body.But the challenge will come when the Senate "leaves its fingerprints" on the bill, as West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito put it to "the fellas" on the "Ruthless" podcast this week. Senators have ideas too. They are equal participants with the House members and the Senate GOP can also only lose three of their 53 votes and still carry the "one, big, beautiful bill" forward.There are two things which can be done to make the bill better and also create some space for money for rural hospitals which, as Capito stressed, is of great concern to many in the GOP conference.MIKE JOHNSON, DONALD TRUMP GET BIG, 'BEAUTIFUL WIN AS BUDGET PASSES HOUSEThe first big change is to add a process by which entitlement reform could commence, and the second is an "IRA/401k conversion window" where a flat tax would be applied to seniors who wish to convert their IRA/401k assets into Roth IRAs, a window which if opened for this tax year, would yield trillions in revenue next year and thus prevent the "one, big beautiful bill" from increasing the debt, while also being wildly popular with the demographic most likely to vote in the 2026 mid-terms.First, fiscal hawks worried about the rising debt could be lured into supporting the final version of the bill by the promise of a shot at entitlement reform not cuts in this Congress. To accomplish this requires the senators remember both the "Greenspan Commission" and the "BRACs."The Greenspan Commission, officially the National Commission on Social Security Reform, was a bipartisan commission appointed by President Ronald Reagan and the leaders of the two houses in 1981 to address a short-term financing crisis facing Social Security. Led by Alan Greenspan, its report produced the Social Security Reform Act of 1983, which included both benefit-reduction and revenue-raising measures to address the projected funding shortfall. Social Security was in much worse shape then than now. Now, Social Security, as well as Medicare and Medicaid, need reforms, not benefit cuts.INSIDE TRUMP'S URGENT MEETING WITH HOUSE GOP TO PASS THE 'BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL'The "BRAC" was the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, established by law, which proposed closures or realignments of military facilities across the U.S and the world to improve efficiency and reduce costs. A BRAC Commission has been used five times with rounds initiated in 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 2005 and each produced lists of military bases and facilities to be combined or closed. Its members compiled the lists and the result was presented to Congress with the choice: do nothing and the BRAC recommendations became law or pass a resolution rejecting them all. It was and remains a brilliant idea that can be applied to entitlement reforms produced by a new Greenspan Commission.CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONThe new commission, like the original, would be made up of presidential and congressional appointees. It would be tasked with proposing entitlement reforms that would very gradually make entitlements fiscally stable. (An example: Raise the retirement age a month every year for the next 40 years, which would raise the retirement age to 69 by 2065. That is a "reform" not a cut, one so gradual as to be unnoticed by Social Security recipients who are already working longer without a prompt from the federal government. Similar reforms for Medicare and Medicaid can be put into place that allow for gentle transitions of the sort that responsible reforms embrace.)TRUMP'S 'BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL' PASSES KEY HOUSE HURDLE AFTER GOP REBEL MUTINYIve written about the second big add-on before: the flat tax on IRA/401(k) conversions.Idaho Republican Senator Mike Crapo, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told me last month this reform is very much on the table. It would raise at least a trillion dollars in one-time revenue and perhaps twice that amount or more. There is opposition from the retirement planning community that operates IRAs and other retirement vehicles, but those offered a 10% or 15% or even a 20% tax on conversion from standard retirement accounts to Roth accounts would applaud long and hard and remember this change come November 2026. The impact of the amendment to the tax code would fly through the Senate parliamentarians review under the "Byrd rule" and more than balance out the fiscal impact of increasing the SALT deduction. Heres to sanity among the bills drafters in the Senate: Sometimes the obvious thing to do is also the right thing to do.With just these two additions to the bill, both fiscal hawks and the politically minded would find the "one, big, beautiful bill" a magnet that could not be resisted.All the Senate has to do is polish up H.R. 1 and the Congress can go home for a well-earned summer vacation.Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor, and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show" heard weekday afternoons 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channels news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman Universitys Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/tv show today.CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM HUGH HEWITT

Since his first day in office, President Donald Trump has mismanaged negotiations over an end to the war in Ukraine. More than 100 days later, innocent Ukrainians are still dying while the president gets played by Russian President Vladimir Putin illustrated starkly by the barrages of drones and missiles continually aimed at Ukrainian cities as Trump posts online.Its good to hear Trump finally express some frustration toward Putin and admit that his negotiating tactics arent working, that, as he says, Putin is "just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently." The reasons for this arent complicated. Instead of increasing his leverage over Russa, Trump offered concession after concession before talks even began.Getting U.S. policy right in Ukraine matters. If we allow Russia to end these negotiations as the victor, our NATO allies in Poland and the Baltics could be next. Chinas President Xi Jinping will draw clear lessons from our capitulation as China plots a takeover of Taiwan. And would-be aggressors the world over will see that the international order that while imperfect has created stability and prosperity in much of the world has ended. TRUMP TELLS PUTIN 'STOP' AFTER DEADLY RUSSIAN STRIKES ON KYIVSadly, Trump is unlikely to listen to me, to our allies, or even to reasonable voices within his own White House and administration. My hope, though, is that he will be guided by the concepts from his own playbook "The Art of the Deal" to secure a just peace and end this war.Donald Trump says never let yourself be pushed around but thats exactly what Putin is doing to him. When Trump proposed an unconditional ceasefire, Putin delayed and then shot a missile at a playground full of children. When Trump threatened additional sanctions if Putin didnt agree to a ceasefire, Putin blew past Trumps demands without consequence.Instead of continuing to get pushed around, the president should heed his own words: "You do your thing, you hold your ground, you stand up tall, and whatever happens, happens." Backing down now by threatening to walk away from talks is incentivizing Putin. This weakness invites Russian and Chinese aggression because an easy deal today undermines security for Europe, Taiwan and the United States tomorrow. TRUMP SAYS HE IS 'PISSED OFF' WITH PUTIN OVER LACK OF PEACE PROGRESS: REPORTTrump should increase sanctionsnot just threaten them and provide continued security assistance and intelligence sharing to Ukraine to sustain its war efforts against Russia. We should also reconsider Ukraines interest in NATO membership to apply all points of pressure on Putin. Russias economy is in real trouble with hundreds of thousands of Russians having been killed or wounded on the front lines. Putin needs this war to end. I couldnt agree more with Trump when he wrote: "The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then youre dead."Trump should not act as though Americans need this war to end more than the Russians do. While everyone wants to see an end to the bloodshed, America must approach these negotiations from a position of strength, so we can secure the best possible deal. Our economy and alliances dwarf those of Russia, which is poorer, more isolated and badly diminished by Putins war.TRUMP BLAMES BIDEN FOR GETTING US INTO A 'MESS WITH RUSSIA'Trump should also not give away our leverage for nothing and that includes the economic might and political unity of our European partners. Presenting a united front means implementing punishing collective sanctions that have damaged Russias economy and thrown sand in its war gears. Acting together with our allies undermines Putins agenda in Europe, inflicts the greatest pain on Russias economy and significantly limits Russias negotiating space.Deeds matter more than words. As Trump wrote himself: "If you dont deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on." He has deeply weakened decades of American leadership and credibility by abandoning our allies and the rules-based system that allowed for predictability, peace and prosperity for Americans and much of the world. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONThe only way to fix Americas credibility is to be decisive and show American strength. An immediate ceasefire allows Trump to deliver on his commitment to the American people and test Russias willingness to seek peace. But he should make clear that a stiffer sanctions package, including secondary sanctions outlined in Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthals legislation, will be imposed imminently. More than 80 senators of both parties have endorsed this bill. He must convince Putin through bold and decisive action that continued war is folly. Only then will there be a durable peace that restores deterrence in Europe and allows Ukraine to rebuild. Ukraines signing of the mineral deal with the U.S. is a promising step, in contrast to Putins recent no-show in Ankara. Trump can re-start peace efforts on his own terms by imposing a stiffer sanctions package on Russia without delay. If he is indeed committed to securing Ukraines independent future, Trump must demonstrate that he is in the stronger position.PUTIN REPORTEDLY CONCERNED OVER RUSSIA'S ECONOMY AHEAD OF POSSIBLE TRUMP TARIFFSBut let me be clear: based on its history, the Kremlin is not interested in peace. Whether in Moldova, Georgia or Ukraine, Moscow has demonstrated strategic patience and abused others good faith to string out negotiations and then escalate when it sees fit. Simply put, when you give Putin an inch, he will take a mile. The only way to prevent this continued cycle is to secure a peace agreement that retains Ukraines national identity and that offers lasting security. Only then will President Trump prevent further aggression that threatens to draw America into future conflict. We are in a critical stage of negotiations and whether we get it right or wrong will reverberate for decades.

Our defense industrial base is stumbling. For years, the U.S. Department of Defense under both Republicans and Democrats failed to address one of the most fundamental issues within our military industrial complex, perverse incentives for contractors. But with the recently announced Army Transformation Initiative, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and General Randy George are taking a major step to stand up for soldiers and strengthen our military readiness. Driscolls plan will help end one source of waste, fraud, and abuse. Every other military branch should follow their lead and, if they do, they will have our bipartisan support.The Department of Defense is the largest federal agency, consuming half the discretionary budget the federal government spends every year. In 2023, for example, DoD spent almost $450 billion on contracts. But buried down deep in the fine print, many of those contracts included restrictions that prevent our troops from fixing their own weapons and equipment.That fine print means that every time something breaks, DoD must call the contractor, schedule a repair visit, and pay a hefty fee. For some contracts, the repairs are more profitable than the original sale a dynamic that represents how years of broken bureaucracy has slowed our acquisition process and driven costs higher and higher.ARMY UNVEILS NEW FITNESS TEST WITH TOUGHER STANDARDS COULD YOU PASS IT?Our military buys a lot of gear from tanks to helicopters to night vision goggles, and the process to buy that gear is longer and more complicated than ever. Even worse, because our service members often cant make any repairs, they can be stuck waiting weeks or months, even for simple problems they could fix themselves with a little know-how and a 3D printer.Driscoll has identified these problems in the Army, but right to repair restrictions have spread across the military. The Navy was forced to rely on flying contractors out to sea for maintenance. The Air Force is struggling to keep its planes ready for combat because of restrictions and companies that wont even negotiate.Every hour these servicemembers cant fix their own weapons undermines their readiness to meet their assignments. Instead of working to help the military be ready for battle, these contractors are focused on squeezing out more revenue.SECRETARY OF THE ARMY DAN DRISCOLL: ARMY UNVEILS MODERNIZATION PLAN BECAUSE, NO LOBBYIST EVER WON A WAR'These restrictions lead to three critical problems: readiness, cost and lack of competition.First, when contractors stop soldiers from fixing their own equipment, it threatens military readiness. All around the country, maintainers were struggling to keep the F-35 flying because Lockheed Martin wont give them the data they need to fix damage to basic parts. When our military could fix a helicopter in Korea themselves, they saved 207 days and roughly $1.8 million.Our military cant afford to wait 207 days to get a helicopter back online. And, in the most extreme cases, our military cant afford to have soldiers unable to repair equipment in the heat of battle, either because the contract has tied their hands or because they havent had the chance to learn how.$1,300 COFFEE CUPS, 8,000% OVERPAY FOR SOAP DISPENSERS SHOW WASTE AS DOGE LOCKS IN ON PENTAGONImagine how frustrating it would be to be in the field up against an enemy, suffer an equipment breakdown, and there would be nothing to do about it. We need to end these dangerous right-to-repair restrictions so that our military is always ready.Second, repair restrictions waste billions of dollars. If Boeing got the Pentagon to agree that only Boeing can repair equipment, what stops them from charging whatever they want for that fix? Suddenly a $0.16 clip costs $20, and the defense budget rises even higher. That is a terrible deal for the taxpayer.By some estimates, giving the military the right to repair would save us billions. But more importantly, it would reinvigorate the operational resilience of our forward-deployed elements and allow them to self-sustain.DEFENSE SECRETARY ANNOUNCES PAY RAISE FOR PARATROOPERS DURING FORT BRAGG SPEECHAnd third, letting a contractor monopolize repairs doesnt just hurt taxpayers, it hurts small businesses that otherwise could compete for the repair work, depressing competition and thinning out our industrial base. Why would a small business start manufacturing a safety clip when the military is forced to go to its larger competitor to buy it?CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONAnd equally alarmingly, if that big contractor decided one day to stop producing the part, the military would be out of luck because the contractor had the only game in town. To be sure, the military created this monopolistic environment, incentivizing consolidation through decades of bureaucratic process. Now they are reaping the whirlwind. We need a more diverse array of contractors who can bring free market competition to our defense space, driving costs down and efficiencies up.Until now, the military has enabled a broken status quo, handing over billions of dollars and hoping that there is no emergency when the equipment they need is sidelined. Meanwhile, over 70% of voters support giving the military the right to repair their own equipment. But Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll showed real leadership. He stood up to a broken bureaucracy and announced that every new Army contract would explicitly guarantee the right of the Army to fix its own equipment. Thats a big deal.The new Army policy is a breakthrough in our fight to empower soldiers, but unless every single military service follows his lead, taxpayers will keep getting ripped off. And, because this is a directive from the secretary, a subsequent secretary could go back to the way things were before.But we have a plan to solve that problem. In the coming weeks, we will be introducing a bipartisan bill that would make changes to right to repair permanent. With a single change in the law, we can boost military readiness and cut costs by allowing servicemembers to repair their own equipment.On both sides of the aisle, many of us agree that waste, fraud and abuse are real problems in our government and its worse when it threatens our military readiness. Its time to show servicemembers weve got their backs and restore their right to fix their own equipment.Republican Tim Sheehy represents Montana in the United States Senate. He is a father, husband, former Navy SEAL team leader, aerial firefighter and entrepreneur. Sheehy completed several deployments and hundreds of missions as a Navy SEAL officer and team leader, earning the Bronze Star with Valor for Heroism in Combat and the Purple Heart.CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM TIM SHEEHYCLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM ELIZABETH WARREN

Most parents of toddlers worry about sleep habits and sniffles, but heart failure isnt usually a concern.It certainly wasnt on the Thomases radar when their 2-year-old son went into sudden cardiac arrest in the middle of the night at their Illinois home.When the child woke up screaming, his parents ran into the room.HODA KOTB REVEALS DAUGHTER'S CONCERNING DIAGNOSIS INFLUENCED HER EXIT FROM 'TODAY'"Hearing him scream out was alarming, as he usually slept soundly, and it was a horrible cry," Stephanie Thomas told Fox News Digital."When I went into his room, he continued to scream out and then face-plant into his crib."At first, the Thomases thought their son was just having a night terror, so Stephanie who is a clinical dietitian at OSF HealthCare Childrens Hospital of Illinois sat next to his crib with her hand on his back, trying to calm him down."When he finally settled, I could feel his breathing slowly come to a stop," she recalled. "I picked him up out of his crib and placed him on the floor. With him being unresponsive, I felt for a pulse and started CPR.""I was petrified and confused about how my seemingly healthy 2-year-old was in this situation."As Stephanie performed CPR, her husband, Kris, called 911.Emergency responders rushed the boy to OSF HealthCare. After 11 days of testing, he was diagnosed with Brugada syndrome, a very rare heart condition that can cause sudden cardiac arrest and death.Though there can be some signs of Brugada syndrome, such as fainting or passing out, the condition is often not discovered until cardiac arrest occurs.The Thomases son had a similar incident about a month before the cardiac arrest, which they now believe may have been his first episode.AI BREAKTHROUGH ALLOWS DOCTORS TO 'SEE' DANGEROUS BLOOD CLOTS FORMING"He woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible scream, had some gasping and was hard to calm," Stephanie recalled. "It was only a short period, and once he calmed, he seemed normal. We assumed it was a night terror."As Brugada syndrome is often inherited, the Thomases were both tested for genetic abnormalities, but it was determined that their son's syndrome is a "mosaic defect," which is when there are two or more genetically different sets of cells in the body.The OSF team implanted the young boy with an EV-ICD (extravascular implantable cardioverter-defibrillator), which is positioned outside the heart's blood vessels. It is designed to detect and correct any abnormal heart rhythms.This was the first time the device was implanted in a child at such a young age, the hospital noted in a press release.Since the first episode, the Thomases son has been hospitalized six more times. Each time an abnormal heart rhythm is detected, the EV-ICD delivers a "life-saving shock" to the boys heart."Our son acts and appears healthy more than 99% of the time, until his heart gets into an arrhythmia that his body and medication cannot manage on their own," Stephanie told Fox News Digital. "In these cases, he receives a shock from his ICD."CDC REMOVES COVID VACCINE RECOMMENDATION FOR HEALTHY CHILDREN AND PREGNANT WOMENThe boy has been readmitted to the hospital due to arrhythmias and medication titration seven times since his initial discharge, his mother added.Sunita Ferns, M.D., a pediatric electrophysiologist at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center who is treating the Thomases' son, noted that her young patient is now "married to cardiology.""We monitor these devices constantly. If we see any arrhythmia in the background, despite the medication he's on, we can offer him other technologies," Dr. Ferns said in the OSF press release."Ablative technologies can help modify the substrate, which is the tissue that's responsible for the bad rhythm."BABY WITH FATAL BRAIN DISORDER SAVED BY ANONYMOUS $47K DONATIONTo help control his arrhythmias, the boy also takes a compounded oral medication every six hours, which he will take for the rest of his life.The parents said it can be challenging to navigate the episodes with a 2-year-old who cant understand whats happening."The hardest part is when he says things like, I cant use the elephant blankie because it shocked me," Stephanie said. "He makes these associations between being shocked and the objects or places around him."There are specific triggers for the boys arrhythmias, the Thomases have learned, such as low-grade fevers and even slight illnesses, like a cold.CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER"It is vital that we keep him as healthy as we can which can be challenging with him being an active 2-year-old and having a 4-year-old," Stephanie said."We make sure that he stays up to date on his and our whole family's vaccines. We do our best to tightly regulate any temperatures."The Thomases now aim to raise awareness of the importance of having CPR training, being alert to warning signs and putting an emergency plan in place.As a healthcare employee, Stephanie has maintained her Basic Life Support (BLS) certification for over 10 years.For more Health articles, visitwww.foxnews.com/health"I have always said that I work with doctors and nurses, so felt that this was something I would never use but the doctors and nurses were not in my house the night my son went into cardiac arrest, so it was left to me."

Most parents of toddlers worry about sleep habits and sniffles, but heart failure isnt usually a concern.It certainly wasnt on the Thomases radar when their 2-year-old son went into sudden cardiac arrest in the middle of the night at their Illinois home.When the child woke up screaming, his parents ran into the room.HODA KOTB REVEALS DAUGHTER'S CONCERNING DIAGNOSIS INFLUENCED HER EXIT FROM 'TODAY'"Hearing him scream out was alarming, as he usually slept soundly, and it was a horrible cry," Stephanie Thomas told Fox News Digital."When I went into his room, he continued to scream out and then face-plant into his crib."At first, the Thomases thought their son was just having a night terror, so Stephanie who is a clinical dietitian at OSF HealthCare Childrens Hospital of Illinois sat next to his crib with her hand on his back, trying to calm him down."When he finally settled, I could feel his breathing slowly come to a stop," she recalled. "I picked him up out of his crib and placed him on the floor. With him being unresponsive, I felt for a pulse and started CPR.""I was petrified and confused about how my seemingly healthy 2-year-old was in this situation."As Stephanie performed CPR, her husband, Kris, called 911.Emergency responders rushed the boy to OSF HealthCare. After 11 days of testing, he was diagnosed with Brugada syndrome, a very rare heart condition that can cause sudden cardiac arrest and death.Though there can be some signs of Brugada syndrome, such as fainting or passing out, the condition is often not discovered until cardiac arrest occurs.The Thomases son had a similar incident about a month before the cardiac arrest, which they now believe may have been his first episode.AI BREAKTHROUGH ALLOWS DOCTORS TO 'SEE' DANGEROUS BLOOD CLOTS FORMING"He woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible scream, had some gasping and was hard to calm," Stephanie recalled. "It was only a short period, and once he calmed, he seemed normal. We assumed it was a night terror."As Brugada syndrome is often inherited, the Thomases were both tested for genetic abnormalities, but it was determined that their son's syndrome is a "mosaic defect," which is when there are two or more genetically different sets of cells in the body.The OSF team implanted the young boy with an EV-ICD (extravascular implantable cardioverter-defibrillator), which is positioned outside the heart's blood vessels. It is designed to detect and correct any abnormal heart rhythms.This was the first time the device was implanted in a child at such a young age, the hospital noted in a press release.Since the first episode, the Thomases son has been hospitalized six more times. Each time an abnormal heart rhythm is detected, the EV-ICD delivers a "life-saving shock" to the boys heart."Our son acts and appears healthy more than 99% of the time, until his heart gets into an arrhythmia that his body and medication cannot manage on their own," Stephanie told Fox News Digital. "In these cases, he receives a shock from his ICD."CDC REMOVES COVID VACCINE RECOMMENDATION FOR HEALTHY CHILDREN AND PREGNANT WOMENThe boy has been readmitted to the hospital due to arrhythmias and medication titration seven times since his initial discharge, his mother added.Sunita Ferns, M.D., a pediatric electrophysiologist at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center who is treating the Thomases' son, noted that her young patient is now "married to cardiology.""We monitor these devices constantly. If we see any arrhythmia in the background, despite the medication he's on, we can offer him other technologies," Dr. Ferns said in the OSF press release."Ablative technologies can help modify the substrate, which is the tissue that's responsible for the bad rhythm."BABY WITH FATAL BRAIN DISORDER SAVED BY ANONYMOUS $47K DONATIONTo help control his arrhythmias, the boy also takes a compounded oral medication every six hours, which he will take for the rest of his life.The parents said it can be challenging to navigate the episodes with a 2-year-old who cant understand whats happening."The hardest part is when he says things like, I cant use the elephant blankie because it shocked me," Stephanie said. "He makes these associations between being shocked and the objects or places around him."There are specific triggers for the boys arrhythmias, the Thomases have learned, such as low-grade fevers and even slight illnesses, like a cold.CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER"It is vital that we keep him as healthy as we can which can be challenging with him being an active 2-year-old and having a 4-year-old," Stephanie said."We make sure that he stays up to date on his and our whole family's vaccines. We do our best to tightly regulate any temperatures."The Thomases now aim to raise awareness of the importance of having CPR training, being alert to warning signs and putting an emergency plan in place.As a healthcare employee, Stephanie has maintained her Basic Life Support (BLS) certification for over 10 years.For more Health articles, visitwww.foxnews.com/health"I have always said that I work with doctors and nurses, so felt that this was something I would never use but the doctors and nurses were not in my house the night my son went into cardiac arrest, so it was left to me."

Trump, Reporters, Democrats-Male Support

RNC Chair Michael Whatley on President Donald Trump's suggestion of a 15% cap on foreign students at Harvard and the five-step plan to keep the GOP in control of the House in 2026.

New York Post financial correspondent Lydia Moynihan on Elon Musk departing from DOGE, his criticism of the 'big, beautiful bill' and President Donald Trump's response.

Trump, Reporters, Democrats-Male Support