HAPPY BOY—Landon Joines, born April 20, is all smiles for a recent photo. He is the son of Alleghany native Jeremiah Joines and wife Shelly.'

Infant Joines faces uphill medical battle

Within hours of Jeremiah and Shelly Joines welcoming their newest addition, Landon, in late April, the couple was told to prepare for his death.

Grandfather, Sparta resident Eldon Joines, explained the youngster was born in a hospital in Statesville and shortly thereafter, his abdomen began to swell and his color began to fade. With the indication he was losing blood, young Landon was transported via ambulance to Winston-Salem.

Joines recalled, "When they got him to Winston, the doctors there initially thought he had a liver injury that might have happened at birth and he might be bleeding internally. He spent most of that day and that next night trying to find the internal bleeding, and he was getting worse the whole time."

The newborn underwent a procedure through which a blockage was found and he was subsequently sent to surgery. Afterward, the doctors informed the Joines family, including Eldon and wife Kathy, brothers 16-year-old Roger Sipe and 8-year-old Ezekiel "Zeke" Joines, that Landon's small intestine was twisted around the artery that supplies blood to the small intestines and the small intestines appeared to be dead.

"They said they would let him stay that way until the next morning at which time they would go back in and see if there was any sign of blood flow returning to the intestines or any sign that they might be alive," remembered Joines. "They told us then that he wasn't going to live and that we should prepare for that. We were all devastated."