When Gideon was born, Samantha and Kevin Jolicoeur could tell that something was wrong with their son.
The doctors noticed several strange things about Gideon; however, nobody could figure out what was wrong. When infants are born, they have a soft spot between the bones in their skull. However, Gideon’s was overly large. He also had an abnormally large dimple on his lower back.
Samantha and Kevin were understandably worried about their son. He had a high-arched palate that was making it difficult for Samantha to nurse, and Gideon was becoming increasingly fussy. The doctors told the new parents that his fussiness and crying was most likely due to colic.
Not knowing how to ease their crying and fussy son, Kevin tried to soothe him by blowing raspberries on his chubby cheek.
“My husband was just trying to find a way to calm him down and it was hilarious because every time he did it, Gideon would stop crying,” Samantha told People.
Samantha decided to film her husband lovingly kissing and blowing on his son’s face. When she uploaded it to Facebook and YouTube, it immediately went viral. The YouTube video has now been viewed over 3.2 million times.
It would be four months after this video was filmed that the family would finally find out that their son was legally blind and severely deaf.
The doctors diagnosed Gideon with Peroxisomal Biogenesis Disorder; a disorder which causes developmental delays, hearing and vision abnormalities, and death. Statistically, most children with PBD do not survive past the age of 10. Doctors told Samantha and Kevin that Gideon would most likely have a year to live.
“The first thing I thought was, ‘My son’s going to die and I can’t do anything … There’s really nothing we could do,’ ” Samantha said. “We went home and grieved the imminent death of our son. Over time as I started to blog and meet more families who had kids like Gideon, I started to realize … he might be one of those kids that does live a little bit longer than a year.”
Gideon is now 5-years-old and still loves getting raspberries on the cheek from his daddy. The family currently runs their own blog titled Life With A Happy Heart; it documents their family’s story and helps provide support for other families living with rare, terminal genetic disorder.
The precious moment when Kevin soothes his crying baby is below. It’s incredible to see so much love in just a 50-second video.
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