Freddie Freeman was equipped with a towel as he entered the interview room at Dodger Stadium on Monday afternoon. Emotional at the best of times, the veteran first baseman knew he couldn’t even take a minute to recount the brutal ordeal his 3-year-old son, Maximus, had endured over the past 10 days without crying.
He was right… and he didn’t care. The tears flowed, as did the gratitude from an eight-time All-Star who returned to the team on Monday, with his son home from the hospital and on a long but hopeful road to recovery from Guillain-Barré syndrome, a condition rare neurological. in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves.
“Max is doing well…but he needs to relearn how to do pretty much everything,” Freeman said, pausing as he rubbed his eyes and collected his thoughts. “Terrible syndrome, Guillain-Barré… but I’m glad I’m here, because it means things are getting better. No one should have to go through this, especially with a 3-year-old.”
Freeman and his wife, Chelsea, noticed Max limping on the morning of July 22, a Monday, and that night Max was unable to walk. The symptoms, according to an initial doctor visit, were consistent with transient synovitis, which can cause hip pain after a viral infection.
See more information: Freddie Freeman’s son returns home from hospital
On Tuesday, Max was unable to sit up, and on the night of Wednesday, July 24, while Freeman was playing against the San Francisco Giants, Max stopped eating and drinking and was taken to the emergency room. Doctors still suspected transient synovitis and recommended Tylenol.
Freeman played a day game against the Giants on Thursday, July 25, and traveled with the Dodger to Houston that night for the start of an eight-game, three-city road trip. But he rushed home the next day after Max’s condition “rapidly declined,” according to a family Instagram post, and he was sent to the emergency room.
“They were ready to call an ambulance to get him because they didn’t think he would be able to breathe for that long,” Freeman said, again fighting back tears. “So I immediately ran and told Scott [Akasaki, traveling secretary] to take me home.”
When Freeman arrived at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Max was suffering from paralysis, which was affecting his breathing, and was placed on a ventilator and a feeding tube.
“The hardest part was seeing my 3-year-old son needing help breathing, when five days earlier he was doing cartwheels and everything,” Freeman said. “You just wish you could change. You really do. Like I’ve already been through a lot in my life. I lost my mother when I was 10, but you can’t compare any of that because they’re both horrible.
“But when it’s your child or your child, and they can’t breathe on their own, that’s difficult. … I know Dodgers fans wouldn’t like this, but I would be happier to strike out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 7 of the World Series 300 million times in a row than see this again.
See more information: Freddie Freeman’s son is battling Guillain-Barré syndrome
There was encouraging news, however, when doctors diagnosed Max with Guillain-Barré and immediately began treatments. Max responded and his condition improved early last week. 48 hours after suffering full-body paralysis, Max was removed from his breathing tube and taken off the ventilator.
“It was [last] Wednesday at 10:46 pm I’ll never forget – his ventilator was turned off and within six minutes he was sitting on top of me,” Freeman said. “I can’t tell you how good it felt to be able to hug my son again. It was a special moment just knowing how much he fought in those five days.
“When he was born, we were trying to come up with a name. We had two children at that time and Chelsea found ‘Maximus’. I thought, ‘That’s a strong name.’ I said I didn’t know this would have to be proven within four years of life, with how strong this little boy is. It’s heartbreaking. It’s really.”
Freeman, who started all of the team’s first 104 games, missed the entire road trip in which the Dodgers lost five of eight games at Houston, San Diego and Oakland.
But with Max home from the hospital, Freeman returned to the team on Monday and was greeted by teammates and coaches who wore blue #MaxStrong Dodgers jerseys with Freeman’s number 5 on the back during batting practice before the opener. of the series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
“I don’t know whose idea it was, but it was the first time I cried today when I walked in and saw those,” Freeman said of the shirts. “It means so much. The support from this organization has been… there are no words. I can’t even put it into words, really. Things happen. I’m so happy he was able to be at CHOC.”
“That team of doctors and nurses, I can’t thank them enough. I can’t thank the medicine enough because that’s what helped. Them knowing how to do that was huge. I’m sure I’ll cry a lot more throughout the day, so be patient. But there are no words to express what the Dodgers meant to us and our family during those nine days.”
See more information: Freddie Freeman was cut from the Dodgers lineup to be with his family
Freeman was among the team’s best hitters when he left the team and entered Monday night’s game with a .288 average, .888 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 16 homers, 26 doubles and 67 RBIs on the season.
In his absence, a Dodgers offense that was already playing without injured Mookie Betts and Max Muncy hit just .213 (65-for-301) on the eight-game road trip, the fourth-worst average in baseball over that span.
The team’s .340 slugging percentage ranked 29th among 30 teams in that span, its .652 OPS ranked 24th, and the Dodgers scored just 36 runs in eight games, 10 of them in Saturday night’s loss to the A’s.
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
