Miracle Kids

Robert

Robert “Pookey” McCullough is a fifteen year old boy with a passion for helping others. He loves to mow lawns for the elderly in his neighborhood, and he is known to be a boy with a very big heart. Last fall, that big heart almost stopped beating forever.

Robert had been passing out for more than a year when he collapsed in the hallway at school in Brenham, Texas. His friends called 911 and he was taken first to the local hospital and then by helicopter to the intensive care unit at Scott & White.

Heart catheterization solved the mystery of Robert’s fainting spells. He had been born with his left main coronary artery in an abnormal position. Exertion caused his other blood vessels to pinch the coronary artery, cutting off the blood supply to his beating heart muscle. Robert was having a series of little heart attacks each time he passed out. Surgery was the only way to save his life.

Robert’s condition rapidly deteriorated and he suffered cardiac arrest as he went into the operating room. Dr. Erik Beyer’s team transferred Robert to the cardiopulmonary bypass machine to oxygenate his blood during surgery. They removed veins from Robert’s legs and used them to perform a double bypass, restoring the blood supply to his heart muscle.

Robert made an astounding recovery, leaving the hospital less than two weeks after he was admitted on the brink of death. His physicians will follow him closely as he grows up, but his prognosis is positive and youth is on his side. “Because he is still so young, his heart muscle should be able to compensate for any damage caused by the pinched coronary artery,” Dr. Beyer said. “I would expect him to do very well.”

Robert’s mission in life has not changed. “I am here to help others,” he says. “I want other kids to have a hospital like Scott & White, a place that can find out what is wrong and fix it.”

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