Mom Kim Waatti had finally found a quiet corner at Children’s Hospital of Michigan to close her eyes for a few minutes in January 2026, when a nurse came running to find her. Her 6-month-old son’s heart had given out after wildly beating out of control – a life-threatening crisis.

“He coded for two minutes,” now says Kim about her son, Edison, fondly known as Eddie, and his brush with death. “I’m running down the hallway with no shoes. That’s when Dr. Al-Ahmadi said, ‘Your son is giving us a sign,’ and then we put him on ECMO. You look at it as last step, but this was a lifesaving step.”

Kim and her husband, Paul, of Rochester Hills, had taken Edison to a community hospital after Kim noticed an excessive heartbeat – so fast she couldn’t count the beats – as her 6-month-old lay on her chest.

Unable to stop the arrythmia or determine what was causing it, the community hospital called Children’s Hospital of Michigan, which sent their PANDA One pediatric ambulance for Edison. Tests later showed Edison’s heart has Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, typically called WPW, where an extra set of electrical pathways form between the upper and lower chambers, causing abnormal electrical impulses in the heart. WPW can cause the heart to beat out of control, as well as create an abnormal flow of blood through the body.

When Edison coded, Children’s Hospital of Michigan Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr. Mamdouh Al-Ahmadi recommended extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, commonly known as ECMO, to keep him alive while the team determined how best to treat his abnormal heart function.

Many in the community became familiar with ECMO during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people became too sick to breathe on their own. The patient’s blood is pumped out of the body and through the ECMO equipment, where it is reoxygenated and then returned to the body.

Children’s Hospital of Michigan is one of a handful of hospitals in Michigan that are part of Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO), a world-wide registry of hospitals that offer ECMO. Children’s Hospital of Michigan is certified as a Silver ELSO Center of Excellence. Next door, the DMC Heart Hospital is certified as a Gold ELSO Center of Excellence for adults.

“ECMO takes over the function of the heart and lungs, and it essentially bought us time,” Dr. Al-Ahmadi. “We were glad to have this advanced life-support equipment available at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, as well as the experts who identified and treated little Edison’s issue. It’s exciting to see him thriving, celebrating his first birthday! This is why we do what we do in pediatric medicine.”

Children’s Hospital of Michigan Pediatric/Congenital Electrophysiologist Dr. Alexandra Menillo, who specializes in heart rhythm issues, and the team were able to control little Edison’s heartbeat, allowing him to be weaned from the ECMO equipment after five days. When he regained his strength, Edison was discharged Feb. 23, 2026.

The ordeal brought special meaning to his 1-year birthday on Aug. 5. Family and friends helped celebrate at the Waatti home in Rochester Hills. But the presents they brought were for patients at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, who might be facing their own medical challenges.

Kim, Eddie, Paul and Eddie’s two brothers, Ray and Henry, delivered the gifts to the team for other patients on Aug. 17.

“We wanted to make it a way of giving back to the team and the hospital that saved his life more than once,” Kim said. “Rather than gifts for Edison, we collected toys and supplies for the children who have to stay at Children's Hospital of Michigan — small comforts to help during a long stay.

Watch the full video here.