He doesn’t wear a leotard, a mask, or a cape but Michael is already a life-saving superhero at just 4-years-old. And he sure is proud of it.
“Ok, I’m a real-life superhero,” he says in a video posted by Love What Matters. “I got… I’m giving my brother… my… I’m giving my baby brothers the bone marrow.”
Thanks to this brave 4-year-old his twin baby brothers will be able to live a healthy life thanks to his donation.
Robin Pownall and her fiancé were shocked when they found out they were expecting not one but two babies since they already had Michael and a 9-year-old named Dominick.
She was even more shocked when the babies were born prematurely at 33 weeks. The twins, Giovanni and Santino, spent five weeks in the NICU and it was later determined that they had Chronic Granulomatous Disease (CGD), a rare immune disorder that makes it hard to fight certain infections.
“Santino was hospitalized for a wound infection, and we have been at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) ever since,” Robin wrote in a post for Love What Matters . “We realized the only way to live a normal, healthy life was through transplant.”
Dominick had actually had the same disease as his little brother and was cured after he had a stem cell transplant.
Micheal ended up being the perfect sibling match for a bone marrow transplant. Robin and her fiancé sat Michael down and told him he was a match and Michael immediately said he would be a donor.
His parents then told him about the process and how it could hurt and that a big needle would be involved. But that did not deter him.
“He said, ‘Is it going to save them?’ We said ‘yes’ and he said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it then!’” Robin recalled. “He was scared initially as anyone would be, but his courage is far more than one of a 4-year-old!”
The babies are currently undergoing chemotherapy and will get their transplant from their superhero brother Michael on March 8, 2018.
“Michael is proud to be saving his twin brothers lives. He is so brave, he leaves his arm out for the nurse to draw his blood,” Robin explains. “He knows what he’s about to do. It’s truly inspirational. He gives me strength just watching how strong he is.”
Robin says that it’s the strength of her boys that keep her strong during these tough times.
“I am so scared and nervous for all three of my boys, but when I look into their eyes, I see strength,” she says. “I know everything is going to be okay.”
You can see how proud Michael is that he gets to be a superhero to his brothers in the video below.
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