LDL. “The Sickest Kid in Alabama” Now Celebrates One Year Off ECMO: 6-Year-Old Kolten Jones’ Christmas Miracle in Gadsden

For one family in Gadsden, Alabama, this Christmas didn’t feel like a holiday.

It felt like a victory lap—one they weren’t sure they would ever get to take.

Kolten Jones, a 6-year-old boy fighting Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), spent this holiday season doing something that still feels unbelievable when you remember where he was just a year ago. Back then, one doctor reportedly called him “the sickest kid in Alabama.” Today, Kolten is in the maintenance phase of chemotherapy—and his family is counting down to a milestone that once seemed impossible: one full year off ECMO.

It Started With a Mom’s Instinct

Kolten’s story began the way so many pediatric cancer stories do—quietly.

Late last fall, Kolten’s mother noticed something was off. Her little boy was walking funny, and it didn’t look like a normal childhood bump or bruise. That instinct led to answers no parent is ready for: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, one of the most common childhood leukemias.

Treatment began quickly, launching Kolten into what his family describes as a two-and-a-half-year chemo journey.

But as difficult as chemotherapy is, it was only the beginning of what Kolten would face.

A Chain of Life-Threatening Complications

Soon after treatment started, Kolten developed Viridans Strep, a serious infection that affected his heart and lungs. His condition deteriorated to the point that he was admitted to the PICU, where his family says he coded three times.

In the hospital, his body was connected to an overwhelming number of machines—his loved ones recall dozens of lines, monitors, and devices working together to keep him alive. He was placed on a ventilator, and his family says he also faced kidney failure.

As his condition worsened, doctors placed Kolten on ECMO—extracorporeal membrane oxygenation—a form of life support used when the heart and lungs need major help to do their job. For many families, ECMO is the word you hear when a situation is at its most critical.

Even then, Kolten’s fight wasn’t finished.

During this crisis, Kolten suffered a stroke on the left side of his brain, which affected the use of his right arm and right leg.

For a 6-year-old—still learning, still growing, still supposed to be playing—these are battles no child should ever face.

“He’s Doing Great”—A Christmas They’ll Never Forget

Today, Kolten is on Phase 3 of his chemo maintenance plan, and his family says his comeback has been nothing short of remarkable.

His mother, Whitney Groover, shared a new update after Christmas, describing a holiday filled with love and generosity.

Whitney said Kolten had an “amazing Christmas” and was blessed with gifts from organizations and supporters, including Mission 44 and a visit from the Pink Heals firetruck—moments that brought joy to a family that has spent far too much time in survival mode.

But the most powerful part of Whitney’s update wasn’t about presents.

It was about the calendar.

“Tomorrow will be a year that they turned off the ECMO machine,” she wrote. “January 1st will be a year he was officially off ECMO and it was removed.”

For families who have watched a child fight for each breath, those dates are sacred. They represent the moment the crisis began to turn. The moment the impossible started to become possible.

And Whitney’s gratitude was clear:

“WE WILL FOREVER BE GRATEFUL TO THE GOOD LORD ABOVE.”

A Community Watching a Miracle in Real Time

Kolten’s story is the kind that stays with people because it carries both extremes—how quickly life can fall apart, and how powerfully it can rebuild.

It’s a story of a mother noticing a subtle change in her child’s walk… and then watching that child endure infections, multiple codes, a ventilator, kidney failure, ECMO, and a stroke—and still keep pushing forward.

It’s also a story of what community can look like when a family is on the brink: gifts, visits, prayers, and people refusing to forget a little boy in a hospital bed.

Most of all, it’s the story of Kolten himself—small in size, but strong enough to survive what would have crushed many adults.

As he looks toward 2026, Kolten’s family is asking for continued prayers for strength, healing, and protection through the rest of his treatment.

Because if the past year has proven anything, it’s this:

Kolten Jones is still here.

And for his family, that is the greatest Christmas miracle of all.

📌 Full details and links (including GoFundMe, if applicable) can be found in the comments below. 👇