Kennewick child survives death at birth, going strong 5 years later

After Hunter Aagaard was born, doctors didn’t think he would live.

Now, at 4 years old, Hunter sat in the driver’s seat of one of his dad’s arcade racing games, Cruis’n Exotica, in their Kennewick home. He appeared to be racing underwater.

“I’m going to the finish line!” he said with excitement, his left arm on the steering wheel.

After that, he was ready to race again. This time, surrounded by dinosaurs and volcanoes.

He said he was fearless.

“He’s totally fearless,” said Kristen Tisdale, Hunter’s mother.

Kristen and her husband, Erik Aagaard, faced every new parent’s nightmare on Aug. 24, 2011. Hunter was about to be born at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, but got stuck in his mother’s birth canal.

Hunter stopped breathing for 6 1/2 minutes. The nurse on staff at the time, Trinity Moga, had to perform chest compressions to save him. Shortly after, he was airlifted to another hospital and given a very slim chance of survival.

The same boy turns 5 on Aug. 24.

Preparing for loss

In 2011, doctors were concerned about several health issues that Hunter would have moving forward.

Hunter and Erik flew to the Seattle Children’s Hospital via helicopter hours after Hunter’s birth. They stayed there for 10 days. Hunter needed blood transfusions and had a seizure.

Erik, as a new father, sat there as paramedics kept the infant stabilized.

“You kind of have a feeling of helplessness,“ Erik said. “You want to help, but there’s absolutely nothing you can do.”

Kristen, meanwhile, drove from the Tri-Cities to Seattle.

Doctors prepared Erik and Kristen for the worst, saying that the loss of oxygen in Hunter’s brain would, at the very best, cause him to not recognize his own parents.

At the very worst, he would die.

“At one point he had 10 different machines on, running different medications into his body,” Erik said.

But Hunter continued the race to live and live strong.

Through recovery, Hunter has had some complications along the way. In addition to limited mobility with his right arm, he had a collapsed right lung, which recovered over time.

“We always ended up at a hospital, because he needed a breathing treatment of some sort,” Kristen said of the family’s vacation attempts.

On his fifth birthday, Hunter will receive botox injections in his arm and be placed in a full-body cast for four to six weeks. Kristen and Erik hope that the procedure will help increase mobility in Hunter’s right arm.

Doctors were initially going to try a tendon transfer.

“They were afraid it would get stuck,” Kristen said. “We’re doing baby steps right now to hopefully give him more mobility.”

He’ll get the cast on Aug. 31.

“We’re hoping for further surgeries and further studies to be done that can help him to get more mobility in that as he gets older,” Erik said.

Becoming a ‘normal everyday kid’

Kristen and Erik both said Hunter doesn’t let his condition keep him from living what appears to be the otherwise normal life of a child.

“Even that does not slow him down, because it’s all he’s ever known,” Kristen said.

Erik described Hunter as “strong-willed” after what he’s been through.

“He doesn’t really let anything stop him,” Erik said. “He doesn’t like to be told that he can’t do something.”

Today, Hunter’s a fan of hockey. He rides his bike, plays racing video games and drives his Jeep Power Wheels.

“He’s really come a long way,” Erik said. “He’s just like a normal everyday kid. He’s right on the level that he should be for his age.”

He also has Kaiden, his 1-year-old brother, to join him on adventures.

“He will usually beg his brother to ride around in the Jeep,” Kristen said of Kaiden riding the tiny car with his older brother.

Hunter undergoes therapy once a week at the Kadlec Healthplex in Richland, which Kristen described as a gym-like setting.

“It’s more like he’s having fun and playing,” she said of the experience.

Hunter attends private preschool at Heritage. He fits in well with the other kids, socializes well.

“Kids don’t really care,” she said. “They just want to know why.”

Kristen has remained in somewhat frequent contact with Mugo, who is now birth center coordinator at Kadlec.

“It was a very hard delivery for her and for Hunter,” Mugo said of the 2011 delivery.

Mugo, who has been at Kadlec since 2008, said an overall quick response of the medical team on staff is what made the best-case scenario a reality.

There’s still a picture of Hunter in the birth nurses’ break room.

“He’s one of our miraculous babies, considering he doesn’t have many deficits,” she said.

Erik, a personal trainer, continues to run Aagaard Fitness and usually leaves for work as early as 4:45 a.m. Kristen will soon attend Columbia Basin College, where she will study nursing.

She looks forward to seeing Hunter grow into a young man.

“You can get caught up in life,” she said. “I would not change what I went through with Hunter. I’m just more excited to see what the future holds.”

Hunter, meanwhile, will be excited to have his friends sign his pink cast in a couple of weeks.

This story was originally published August 12, 2016 at 6:30 PM with the headline "Kennewick child survives death at birth, going strong 5 years later."