A Child H1N1 Patient's Joyous Homecoming

Update: After Six Weeks of Fighting for His Life, 10-Year-Old Tony Estlinbaum Returns to His Family

(CBS)  Hugh Estlinbaum's about to get his son back. Tony, 10, is going home after a six-week drama - a life-and-death battle with H1N1.

Within a day of catching the flu, Tony was living on life-support in the intensive care unit of Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City. After three weeks, the fifth-grader finally opened his eyes, and gradually got well enough to leave the hospital for a rehab clinic.

Tony's still weak. But over 11 days of rehabilitation, his strength and endurance improved. Complete recovery could take a year.

"How long did you think you had slept for?" CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann asked.

"I thought I had slept for a few days," Tony said. "My dad told me I slept for a few weeks."

"What did you think when he told you that?" Strassmann asked.

"I thought he was kidding," Tony said.

There was a time when Tony doing so well was unimaginable.

"This wasn't even in our focus at all," Hugh Estlinbaum said. "Our focus was seeing him breathe by himself."

More coverage of Tony and others at Children's Hospital:

Two H1N1 Kids Now Show "Miracle" Progress
Two H1N1 Patients, Two Different Outcomes

Lateasha Howard was as sick as Tony and will soon leave the same ICU.

"Yes, it’s a miracle," said Carolyn Howard, Lateasha's mother. "To see that my baby's doing better."

But two rooms away, Natesha Hart's bed is now empty. On Monday night, the eighth-grade honors student died of H1N1 complications.

But for the Estlinbaums, it's a homecoming to remember, and Tony's siblings Samantha, 8, and Zakary, 4.

"The whole situation didn't seem real," said Lizzy Estlinbaum, Tony's mom. "And now that he's home again, it doesn't seem real, either, but it will."

Six weeks ago, Hugh Estlinbabum saw his son lie in a drug-induced coma. Today - over his shoulder - Tony naps on the couch.

"It looks really good," he said. "It looks really good - it's my boy."

Their boy is back - their family complete.

[hockeymom441]

Did anyone hear about the fact that prisoners are getting this vaccine before children!

This is an outrage!

[IrishWench01]

You are ridiculous. The H1N1 vaccine has been approved and is being distributed. The problem lies with the fact that there was less time to develope and manufacture than for the usual yearly flu. The manufacturers are having difficulty keeping up.

Yes, people are dying, just like they do every year from the flu. Many more or not dying as is demostrated by the fact that I am sitting here typing with my children asleep in the other room and my ex-husband and his family of 8 are doing the same thing at his house.So are teachers and students where my children attend. All of us after having had the H1N1 flu. Along with several schools in this state. All of this and 14 deaths so far in this state. Sad, but not a majority of those taken ill. There is also absolutely no support for your blame of the President. Its ridiculous, immature and obviously motivated by reasons other than concern over the safety of the population and the H1N1.

[flires]

Obama's Katrina-

A few years ago we the United States experienced the devastation of Katrina where a few thousand people died. The democrats were all over FEMA and the Bush administration's so called failure for being late a few days in an area where people were told to evacuate.

Today, thousands continue to die because of the inability of the government to approve and distribute the N1H1 vaccine quickly enough, even tough the vaccine has already been developed. Where is the outrage now? Thousands are still dying and a lot more will die before this will be over. The media doesn't seem to care now that Obama is the president. Shouldn't this be Obama's "Katrina" failure?