Ventura Parents Raise Awareness About Pediatric Brain Injuries

When 4-year-old Mikey Pizzo was 7 weeks old, his mom Christina Pizzo discovered her newborn had stopped breathing while he was in his baby carrier. He was unconscious and unresponsive. Another parent, who was a paramedic, helped with CPR until the ambulance arrived. He was in cardiac arrest for between 45 minutes to an hour. The pediatric intensive care unit at Ventura County Medical Center had recently opened. Once Mikey arrived, Jesse Wyatt, M.D., a pediatric intensivist at Pediatrix® Critical Care of California, cooled his body to preserve his brain function. “We did our best to mobilize all our resources and stabilize so we can get him down to CHLA,” Dr. Wyatt said, referring to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The Pizzo family created a website to track Mikey’s journey and be an invaluable resource for other families experiencing similar traumas. “Being advocates for children with head injuries and the research, they were able to make many connections,” said Dr. Wyatt.

View the full story on ABC LA