LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday afternoon, clutching a towel and pausing to wipe away tears often as he described the “miracle” that has his youngest son, Maximus, on the road to recovery after a severe illness that left the 3-year-old temporarily paralyzed.
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Freeman has been away from the Dodgers for the past 10 days as Maximus was hospitalized with a case of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological condition in which the body’s immune system fights its own nerves.
“Seeing one of your kids with a ventilator, fighting,” he said, choking up, “it was hard.”
Freeman said that Maximus is expected to make a full recovery. That is why Freeman returned to the Dodgers after missing the past eight games. But the emotions of the ordeal are still raw.
He shed tears when he arrived at his locker in the Dodger Stadium clubhouse and saw his teammates’ blue T-shirts with #MaxStrong written across the front and Freeman’s name and No. 5 on the back. The shirts were organized by Patricia Romero, who works with the organization as a liaison between the club and players’ wives.
Freeman wore that shirt to his news conference, where he detailed the frightening time he and his wife, Chelsea, spent while Maximus was under the care of doctors at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
Get well soon, Max! We’re all rooting for you. 💙 pic.twitter.com/oEHplZd20L
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Freeman spoke with awe as he marveled over his young son, who returned home on Saturday evening and began physical therapy on Sunday as he relearns how to walk.
“When he was born, we were trying to figure a name for two kids at that time,” Freeman said, referring also to their son, Brandon, who was born six weeks before Maximus. “Chelsea came upon Maximus. I was like, ‘That’s a strong name.’ I said I didn’t know it was going to be proven true within four years of his life, how strong this little boy is. … It’s heartbreaking, it really is.”
Freeman said Maximus, with fellow children Brandon and Charlie, 7, all fell ill due to a viral infection during the All-Star break in Arlington, Texas. That illness continued after the break. Maximus began walking with a limp that following Monday, on July 22. A visit with the doctors, and several others that night, showed that Maximus was demonstrating symptoms consistent with transient synovitis — temporary inflammation of the hip joint brought on by a viral infection. Freeman first considered not playing then.
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By that night, Maximus couldn’t walk. By July 23, he couldn’t sit up. Freeman rushed home from Dodger Stadium after that night’s game against the Giants to be with him. The Dodgers pulled Freeman from the ninth inning on July 24 when Chelsea phoned clubhouse manager Alex Torres and told him that Maximus had stopped eating and drinking. The treatment plan of Tylenol recommended by doctors for transient synovitis wasn’t working. Maximus was taken to the emergency room.
Freeman played the following afternoon’s day game on one hour’s sleep, he said, but felt uneasy as he boarded the team’s flight to Houston that afternoon for what would’ve been the start of a three-city trip.
He arrived in Houston on July 25. The next day, a Friday, Freeman went through his customary early work with third-base coach Dino Ebel and retreated to the visiting clubhouse at Minute Maid Park. Maximus’ health had declined quickly; when Chelsea brought him back to be reevaluated by doctors, Freeman watched via FaceTime. He then alerted traveling secretary Scott Akasaki and booked a flight home to Los Angeles as Maximus returned to the emergency room.
“They were ready to call an ambulance for him because they didn’t think he was going to be able to breathe that long,” Freeman said before pausing to catch his breath again. The symptoms, including paralysis that now went up to their son’s shoulders, were no longer consistent with transient synovitis. As Freeman sat waiting for his flight, Maximus was put on a ventilator and had a feeding tube inserted. He walked in shortly after 10 that evening.
“That my 3-year-old son is being helped to breathe, when five days earlier, he was doing front flips and doing everything,” Freeman said. “It’s just, you just wish you could switch.”
Doctors at CHOC quickly diagnosed Maximus with Guillain-Barré syndrome, which, like transient synovitis, could be transmitted via a viral infection, and started him on two rounds of intravenous immunoglobulin, or IVIG. According to the National Health Service, IVIG is made of donated blood that contains healthy antibodies. That plan, Freeman said, slowly brought signs of progress.
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First, Maximus started shrugging his shoulders. By Wednesday, he’d progressed enough to reach a milestone.
“Wednesday at 10:46, I’ll never forget it, he had his ventilator pulled,” Freeman said. “We had PT there. And so right when his ventilator was pulled, 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.”
With that, Maximus’ smile returned. He noticed the IVs attached to each of his hands and “was acting like he was Spider-Man,” Freeman said with a smile. “Anyone that came in, he would, ‘Pew!’ like he was shooting them.”
Maximus returned home Saturday night. His fingers remain clasped and he will have to relearn how to fully open his hands. There is no clear timetable. But the signs — including the ability to sit up without having to lean to a side — are encouraging. Freeman thanked the work of Dr. Jason Knight, CHOC’s division chief for pediatric critical care.
“It’s been a miraculous recovery,” Freeman said. “That’s what they say to us.”
He lauded the support he received from the Dodgers organization and beyond. Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy and his staff sent personalized videos echoing their support. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo called. “The whole Atlanta Braves organization,” where Freeman spent the first 12 seasons of his All-Star career, checked in. More support from current and retired players poured in as he and Chelsea posted updates over the last 10 days.
When Freeman arrived at the ballpark Monday, every member of the Dodgers and their staff was donning the “#MaxStrong” shirts. When Freeman went on emergency family leave, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes encouraged Freeman to take as much time as needed. Dave Roberts, who had written Freeman’s name into the lineup for all but three games of his Dodgers tenure before Freeman went on leave, encouraged his star first baseman to disconnect completely.
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“He was 100 percent present with his family and that was our advice,” Roberts said. “He needed to be.”
“Baseball is so far secondary when it comes to this,” Gomes said. “(We were) making sure we’re checking in on him as a person, not the baseball player.”
Freeman took swings last Tuesday, looking for an excuse to move around after days shuffling around the hospital and nights sleeping on the couch. Then again Thursday, after Maximus was removed from the ventilator. The most extended absence he’d had from baseball since 2017 continued over the weekend, as he and his father, Fred, worked out at El Modena High School in Orange, Calif., where he starred in his youth. With Maximus on the mend and traveling the road to recovery, Freddie and Chelsea started discussing a return.
Monday, his eyes watery and wearing a shirt with his son’s name on it and with his oldest son, Charlie, by his side, Freeman came back. Roberts penciled him into the lineup, batting third, against the Philadelphia Phillies.
“I know Dodger fans don’t like this, but I would gladly strike out with the base loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, in Game 7 of the World Series 300 million times in a row than see that again,” Freeman said. “But he’s on his way.”
(Photo of Freddie Freeman with Jason Heyward: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
Fabian Ardaya is a staff writer covering the Los Angeles Dodgers for The Athletic. He previously spent three seasons covering the crosstown Los Angeles Angels for The Athletic. He graduated from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in May 2017 after growing up in a Phoenix-area suburb. Follow Fabian on Twitter @FabianArdaya
