A 13-month-old Canadian boy known as Baby Joseph has received a tracheotomy and is expected to remain in pediatric intensive care in St. Louis for seven to 10 days.
Joseph Maraachli underwent the procedure Monday after arriving last week at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center. The Catholic hospital agreed to treat him after his doctors at an Ontario hospital determined that he was in a permanent vegetative state and in deteriorating condition.
When the Canadian doctors planned to take him off of assisted breathing, the boy's parents went to court but lost.
Cardinal Glennon said Monday that Joseph suffers from Leigh Syndrome, a progressive neurological disease.
The hospital says that when discharged, he will be treated at Ranken Jordan, a pediatric specialty hospital in St. Louis, then go to the family home in Windsor, Ontario.