St. Charles rallies around 16-year-old wrestler recovering from heart transplant
ST. CHARLES, Minn. — A St. Charles teenager says he's lucky to be alive after a sudden illness required a heart transplant.
Back in January, 16-year-old Braxton Wohlferd got violently sick after contracting a common childhood virus called parvovirus B-19.
It was the middle of the wrestling season and just a few days after a tournament when Braxton Wohlferd thought he was coming down with the stomach flu.
"I started throwing up about 2:30 in the morning. And I kept throwing up every 30 minutes," said Braxton Wohlferd.
It got bad enough that he called his mom Melissa to come home. By the time she arrived, he was so weak that she rushed him to the emergency room in Rochester. That's when his heart stopped beating.
"Within about 3.5 hours of being in the hospital, he coded," his mother explained.
They did chest compressions for 22 minutes before doctors hooked Wohlferd up to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, which pumped his blood and helped him breathe. His heart never restarted.
"By that afternoon they said the only chance of survival was a heart transplant," said Melissa Wohlferd.
It was all due to a parvovirus, which people get but never know it. Braxton Wohlferd's case is extremely rare.
"They said it's more likely to get struck by lightning than to have instance like this happen," said Melissa Wohlferd.
A few days later, a heart became available. The transplant only took a few hours and his body accepted it right away. Afterwards, doctors even gave him a replica of his old heart. On top of the transplant, compartment syndrome forced them to remove some of his leg muscles.
"They had to open up his legs from ankle to knee and from knee to hip," said Melissa Wohlferd.
But through it all, Braxton Wohlferd persevered.
"A little girl in town made 'Brax Strong' bracelets that she sold and gave the money to Braxton," said Melissa Wohlferd.
In May, after four months in the hospital, St. Charles welcomed him home with a parade. Inspired by everything that's happened to him, Braxton Wohlferd says he would love to go into the health care field someday and become a nurse or physical therapist so he can help others.
"There were a lot of people who helped me and I'd like to be able to pay it forward and help people that are maybe in the same situation as me," said Braxton Wohlferd.
Braxton Wohlferd's new heart is 18, two years older than him. And it comes from a young man whose family realized the importance of organ donation.
"We will never be able to thank the donor family enough for their act of kindness while they were going through the most pain they had experienced in their life," said Melissa Wohlferd. "I think my biggest take-home message is we all know we can mark organ donation on our license and until you are personally affected by it, you don't realize how important that organ donation is."
Braxton Wohlferd says he would like to meet the family of his donor one day. He'll be a junior at St. Charles this fall, and while he likely won't play sports this year, he's hoping to at least play baseball his senior year.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that an echocardiogram machine was used in the rescue efforts. The story has since been corrected.