Freddie Freeman singled and received a hug from Phillies star Bryce Harper during his return to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup on Monday night. Freeman had missed eight games to be with his ailing 3-year-old son, who is now out of danger after a serious medical diagnosis.
“I’m back,” Freeman said before the game. “So that means good things are happening at the Freeman home.”
Freeman was greeted with a standing ovation during his first at-bat. The Phillies also applauded from their dugout. He stepped out of the batter’s box, took off his helmet, waved to the crowd, and touched his right hand to his heart.
The support clearly touched Freeman, who took a few deep breaths before facing Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola. He struck out swinging to end the first inning.
The crowd chanted “Freddie! Freddie!” before Freeman singled in the third inning. Harper was there to give him a comforting hug.
Initially, a diagnosis for Maximus Freeman was incorrect. He was later found to have Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder where the body’s immune system attacks the peripheral nervous system, causing nerve damage and muscle weakness. Freeman and his wife, Chelsea, had never heard of this condition before.
“Seeing one of your kids on a ventilator fighting, it was hard,” Freeman said, his voice choking with emotion. “That’s the heartbreaking thing. No one deserves to go through something like this.
I know you parents understand that. You’d switch in a second to take that pain, that suffering away from your kid in a heartbeat. When you feel hopeless, like Chelsea and I did, that’s hard.”
Freeman cried and wiped his eyes and nose with a towel while speaking to the media.
“If you talked to me six days ago, I would never have been able to speak,” Freeman said. “The reason I’m able to get through this is because of the huge wins we’ve been getting the last few days with him. It’s been a miraculous recovery, that’s what they say to us.”
Maximus first got sick during the All-Star break in July when the family traveled to Texas to cheer on Freeman. Four days later, the child couldn’t sit up or walk and eventually stopped eating and drinking.
Freeman said his son lost sensation from his feet to his shoulders and had trouble breathing.
Maximus was rushed to the hospital near their home in Orange County and was placed on a ventilator. He received two rounds of intravenous immunoglobulin, a treatment that helps restore the immune system.
“Then it was a waiting game,” Freeman said. He and Chelsea spent hours in the pediatric intensive care unit, watching their son closely for any signs of improvement.
“He started to shoulder shrug, which was a massive sign for us,” Freeman said. “It means we were closer to potentially getting the ventilator out.” Doctors were pleased to see Maximus’ paralysis moving from the top of his body to the bottom.
“We ticked off the little wins we could get during this time,” Freeman said. His mother had died of melanoma when he was 10.
The ventilator was removed “at 10:46, I’ll never forget it,” Freeman said. “Within six minutes he was sitting on me. I can’t tell you how good that felt, to be able to hold my son again.”
Maximus is one of the Freemans’ three sons. Charlie is the oldest, followed by Brandon and Maximus, a name Chelsea chose.
“That was a strong name,” Freeman said. “I didn’t know it was going to be proven to be true within four years of his life of how strong this little boy is.”
On Monday, Freeman was welcomed by his teammates and Dodgers staff wearing blue #MaxStrong T-shirts with his last name and jersey number 5 on the back. Manager Dave Roberts said a team employee came up with the idea.
