At 4 months old Noah was a happy, healthy little baby. One week later, he was completely immobile and nearly comatose. In that week the regular clusters of seizures, like a thunderstorm in his head, had erased everything he had learned.
It took three sets of drugs over three months before the seizures were brought under control. During that period Noah’s body swelled to three times his size, he developed high blood pressure, lost the desire to eat and stopped breathing. Three months after the seizures began, drug therapy brought the seizures under control.
When Noah’s parents, met Hannah, one of SHARE’s physical therapists and Jill, an infant development specialist from a partner agency, they knew only that Noah’s prognosis included physical and mental developmental delays and more problems that would appear later in life. “We cried every day and night.”
For the next 9 months Hannah taught Claire and Damian the exercises that would help Noah re-build his skills. She focused on how Noah’s skills were changing and it gave them hope. “That’s what got us through.”
Every day, they focused on helping Noah develop his abilities. At first, it was learning how to raise his head,then to roll, then how to eat, then to grasp toys.