100% of funds received will go directly to the Pope Family (2 adults, 5 kids ages 8-1) to pay for medical expenses, hotel costs and food expenses while their 3yr old is hospitalized. All support is so appreciated but if you cannot financially give, please PRAY 🙏 as we know God is written all over this story.
Updates will be shared here. The original story is below, if you scroll.
Update 10/30/26 3:55pm
I can’t believe I’m writing this, as Ben and I were bracing for the worst, but the neurosurgeon just called and they REPAIRED ALL THE ANEURYSMS. “All went well,” he said. They were able to get a coil in the big one (it’s about 1cm) and they stented the others. The stents come with the risk of still bleeding, as they do not completely fix the aneurysm but rather help the blood flow properly so the artery can heal “from the inside out.” He will be on blood thinners for 6 months due to the stents in his brain and then be weaned off.
He will remain in the PICU for at least two weeks, as the subarachnoid hemorrhage can cause vasoconstriction in the brain, which if not treated would be fatal. The window for that to happen is days 3-10. We are praying against any of that in the name of Jesus, but he will be constantly monitored for it here. If it starts, they will treat immediately with medications and other measures until it passes. It’s a potential rebound effect of all that blood sitting where it wasn’t supposed to be in his brain.
So the minimum stay here is two weeks.
Now for the bad news: The neurosurgeon said that brain artery is “weak” and looks “diseased.” We do not know how or why it is diseased. They are now going to perform a bunch of tests to see if there is an infectious disease somewhere in his body that got into his blood and went into his brain and weakened the artery. They will start with a heart ECHO to see if there is an infection in his heart.
If no infectious process is found, then the vessel weakness is idiopathic and they don’t have a reason for why it happened. But weak brain vessels and aneurysms in 3 year olds are incredibly rare.
He came out of surgery almost exactly 24 hours after he “went down” at home. This is a huge answer to prayer, as the rate of re-rupture is 1% every 24 hours. So I was begging God that they would get him into surgery before the 24 hour mark so we wouldn’t get another 1% closer. And they did.
He is still intubated and sedated, and we are hopeful to begin to wake him tonight or tomorrow.
He has a long road ahead. He still has 4 aneurysms that are only stented (so not totally repaired,) and he still might have an infectious process affecting his brain. He will remain in PICU a minimum of 2 weeks.
We have a room at the Ronald McDonald house so will be checking in this evening.
Keep praying, and I will keep updating as able.
Update 10/30/26 11:35am:
Our Precious Phineas was just wheeled into his first surgery.
They are doing an angiogram to get a closer look at the aneurysm.
We spoke with the vascular neurologist before the procedure, and he was very sober about the situation. Phineas has FIVE brain aneurysms. One large and four smaller. There is suspicion for an infectious process that may be coming from somewhere else, having weakened his brain vessels.
When he woke up vomiting is when one of the aneurysms ruptured. We are thanking God that He spared his life from that initial rupture.
The options are very limited and not great, but the surgeon is confident he can do the best he can. I believe God still does miracles and can simply make those aneurysms disappear. I don’t know how else to pray, so I’m praying for that.
His siblings are having a hard time. Thank you for your prayers for us al
10/29/26 6:30pm
Hi everyone,
Thank you for your continual prayers for Phineas and our family. I ran out the door of our house around 3:30 today, with an unresponsive little boy in my arms. He was perfectly fine all day, happily playing and no signs of sickness. I put him down for his nap, and he woke up screaming after an hour. He then projectile vomited several times and complained of his neck hurting.
I had a friend over for tea and scones, who had just arrived. I got him cleaned up and cozy, walked out of the bedroom to tend to another child, and when I walked back in he was seizing (though I didn’t know it was a seizure) and unresponsive. I began screaming to call 911. My friend and my mom both ran in, I scooped him up and told my mom to grab the keys. I ran out the door with him limp in my arms, and my mom drove like a mad woman. We met the ambulance on the highway.
The amount of times I’ve had THREE adults at my house is, I think, zero. It’s truly a miracle that my friend was there to stay with the other kids when my mom and I ran out the door. I didn’t even grab my phone or my purse. It’s a good thing I happened to have decent can-leave-the-house clothing on—that’s how fast I ran out the door.
The dispatcher kept asking me if I needed to start CPR, but he was breathing intermittently and I knew he had a faint pulse, so I didn’t.
At our local ER they stabilized him and performed a battery of tests, including a lumbar puncture and a CT. The LP was positive for bacterial meningitis, and the CT shows what they think is blood in his brain. It could also be bacteria, or a combination of blood and bacteria.
The LifeFlight crew showed up and began packing him up for transport. For the first time, he became coherent and said “do I get to go on a helicopter?” and something else.
We all sighed with a bit of relief to see some mentation returning.
Not five seconds later, the LifeFlight paramedic got a horrible look on his face and said “buddy? Buddy?” and peeled his eyes open to find them fixed and disconjugate.
At this point, everyone in the room had the most horrible looks on their faces, and it seemed we were losing him.
I had a hard time standing so left the room to sit in the waiting room. I didn’t know if he was alive.
They intubated him, asked Ben if he “knew” (the gravity) and then Ben and the manager came to find me in the waiting room. When they walked in, I was certain we had lost him. The looks on their faces were not good. I said “is he alive,” and thank God they said “yes.”
They then packed him up again and finally loaded the helicopter. The flight medics were top notch.
We are now in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at a hospital a couple hours from our home. They have everything we might need here, including pediatric neurosurgery.
He remains intubated and sedated. They are running a ton of tests, including multiple MRIs and CT scans. We have neurologists and the PICU doctor in-house as well as tons of other people working to figure this out.
I don’t have a lot of answers yet. Some kind of meningitis seems certain, and blood + debris around his brain. They still have concerns for an aneurysm as well.
Ben and the rest of the kids are staying in a nearby hotel tonight. Please ask God to grant them supernatural sleep and rest. Willaby has never spent a night without me and is still nursing in the early mornings. I am praying serious grace over my husband. He was present and assisting as a nurse every second until he watched the helicopter lift off. This has affected both of us greatly.
I know you already are, but please keep praying for his life. I am humbly begging God for his life. But I am at the same time so certain that Jesus has gone before us this whole time and will continue to do so, so though my faith and trust are feeble I know that He is with us. And He is Good.
Feel free to share this with anyone seeking an update. I will continue to update the comment thread here as able.
Update:
It is an aneurysm with multiple lobes.
They are working on a plan now. Neurologist is coming up soon to place a drain to get some of the fluid out and then they will decide next steps.
God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.— Psalm 46:1
