Catholic speaker's son dies from a severe case of the flu

Micah Joseph Kim, the 5-year-old son of Catholic speaker and social media influencer Paul J. Kim, passed away Dec. 31 after spending 11 days on life support following complications from a severe case of the flu, his father announced in a video posted Jan. 1.

“After fighting 11 long, hard days, Micah went home to the house of our Father,” Kim said in the tearful announcement. “We’re so proud of him. Our hearts are broken; but we trust in the Lord.”

Kim described his son as a joyful child and said he believed Micah was now “very busy already” in heaven, adding that he sees “the Lord using him and sending him on missions to bring millions of people closer to God.”

Micah’s medical crisis began Dec. 21, when he was rushed by ambulance to a hospital in Austin, Texas, after experiencing a sudden emergency linked to flu complications. According to updates shared by his father, the illness escalated into sepsis, severe internal bleeding around the heart, seizures, and multi-organ failure, including kidney complications.

Micah underwent emergency chest surgery to stop the bleeding, which initially stabilized his heart and allowed it to beat independently. He remained on life support, including a ventilator, as doctors monitored slow changes in lung function. Subsequent scans later showed severe brain damage, and physicians determined there was no meaningful neurological recovery.

“My five-year-old son, Micah, needs a miracle in order to survive,” Kim wrote in a Dec. 22 update during the hospitalization. 

Kim, a popular Catholic youth and young adult speaker and father of six, has more than 300,000 followers on Instagram and is known for speaking at Catholic conferences on faith and family life. His frequent updates about his son’s condition drew tens of millions of views worldwide, with many people joining in prayer through the intercession of Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen for his healing. 

In a post on Christmas Day, he wrote, “This has undeniably been the heaviest cross my wife and I have carried in our entire lives. I have never felt so crushed and helpless in my life.” 

Advocacy groups, such as Texas Right to Life, said they assisted the family during the ordeal. In statements posted online, the organization said its patient advocacy team helped the Kims navigate hospital decision-making and disputes over continued life-sustaining treatment. Texas Right to Life opposed what they described as pressure from doctors to withdraw treatment prematurely. 

“While Micah’s injuries were serious, in this case, the hospital administration and ethics committee did more harm to the child by withholding necessary life-sustaining treatment and seeking to coerce the family into abandoning hope and prematurely withdrawing all care. Texas Right to Life strongly condemns the actions of the Austin hospital,” Texas Right to Life said in a Dec. 31 statement. 

No specific hospital is named in Texas Right to Life’s report. 

Kim said the family ultimately continued care while Micah remained hospitalized and on life support until his death. 

"For those two weeks we were fighting long and hard, we were consulting legal, health, ethical teams even outside the hospital. Just to make sure we weren't leaving any stone unturned,” he said. “In many ways we were fighting for Micah to buy him as much time as possible, until he passed. As a father, that is my duty. I was called to do that. Even if in God's ultimate will it wasn't meant for him to recover.” 

Kim said his social media accounts were viewed more than 50 million times during the hospitalization as people around the world offered prayers and messages of support. A GoFundMe campaign was also launched to help offset medical costs.

“Thank you for all the love, prayers, and compassion that so many of you have shown us,” Kim said. “Your prayers for Micah were answered — but in a different way than what we had hoped for.”