{"id":173551,"date":"2017-10-24T10:30:11","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T14:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=173551"},"modified":"2017-10-23T19:46:28","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T23:46:28","slug":"boy-given-5-chance-survival-celebrates-first-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/boy-given-5-chance-survival-celebrates-first-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy given 5 percent chance of survival celebrates his first birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Little Liam Stephenson has just celebrated his first birthday, something his parents feared would never happen after he was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis at birth and was given just a 5 percent chance of survival.<\/p>\n

Bacterial meningitis can cause blood poisoning, brain damage, loss of hearing, and sometimes the need to amputate limbs.<\/p>\n

News of Liam’s poor prognosis broke last year after his family requested prayers via social media. Liam had been in the neonatal intensive care for\u00a0six weeks when an MRI showed possible brain damage and bleeding on the brain. His family was scared they were going to lose him.<\/p>\n

“They gave him a five percent chance of living and if he did he was not going to be able to hear good, talk, crawl, or walk,” his aunt Jana Blankenship told Fox 5<\/a> in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Baby girl born with brain outside her skull is meeting all milestones<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Liam, however, had other plans. He spent just over a month in the NICU before doctors declared him well enough to go home with his family. After being discharged, Liam returned to the hospital 10 times because of seizures.\u00a0Now, however, Liam is thriving. His aunt said the bleeding on his brain is gone and the seizures have stopped.<\/p>\n