CHATSWORTH, Ga. — Last year, doctors told a 5-year-old boy who was diagnosed with an ultra-rare brain disorder that he'd never be able to play football.
It took just a little over a year to do it, but Ben Holloway proved them wrong.
Though he still needs check-ups, Ben is now a healthy, thriving 5-year-old who recently started kindergarten, according to ABC News.
Ben even got to play in a football game recently, thanks to a local high school football team in his hometown of Chatsworth, Georgia.
Wearing a green Murray County High School jersey with his name on it and a white helmet, Ben was cheered on by football team members chanting his name as he ran down the field this past May, according to his dad Joshua Holloway. And though he stumbled two times, team members helped him back up and went wild when he finally scored a touchdown.
"The entire team picked him up, chanting, 'Ben! Ben! Ben!" Joshua said. "I've never seen him so happy or ecstatic. He was on cloud nine."
Ben was diagnosed last year with a brain dural arteriovenous fistula (BDAF), Joshua told ABC News.
BDAF is an abnormal connection between blood vessels outside and inside the dura, the brain's fibrous covering, according to Dr. Nicholas Bambakidis, who did not treat Ben, but who is a neurosurgeon who treats other children with Ben's condition at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.
"You can have side effects and devastating problems such as bleeding in the brain, which can lead to stroke, and other problems such as swelling in eyes that can cause vision loss," Bambakidis said. "In children, these fistulas seem to form spontaneously, whereas adults usually acquire them from trauma such as gunshot wounds."
After the doctor did an angiogram to see how bad Ben's situation was, a procedure that took over three hours, he came out and told the family that it was the biggest fistula he'd ever seen, Joshua said.
"He said he could attempt to fix it, but there was a 50 percent chance he'd have a stroke and a 20 percent chance he might not make it off the table," he said.
The family decided to go through with the surgery. It was successful, and Ben has only had to do one emergency surgery after a dangerous leak this past June, Joshua said.
"He's going to have check-ups to make sure nothing is wrong every six months, but there's a possibility that it could be gone and there will be no need for a fourth surgery," Joshua said. "He's been doing great. You'd never known anything was ever wrong with him."
Ben's dad has set up a GoFundMePage to help with the costs of Ben's medical treatments.
WSBTV
