Children's Hospital

Family's Search For Surgeon Leads To Children's

A Family Desperate To Help Their Little Boy Finds A Savior At Children's Hospital Boston

BOSTON (WBZ) ― Imagine the joy of your baby's birth being shattered when your doctor gives you devastating news.

This is the story of a little boy from Newburyport who beat the odds with the help of Children's Hospital in Boston. In fact a surgeon at Children's was the only doctor who would take on this case. And thanks to that doctor, little Brady O'Donnell is a superstar.

Lisa: I know you're a Red Sox fan, but do you play baseball?

Brady: Yeah.

You bet he does, but 4-year-old Brady O'Donnell wasn't supposed to be able to do this. Today he's healthy enough to shake off the signal from Big Papi and throw out the first pitch at Fenway Park.

Brady was born with an extremely rare illness that causes brain and skull abnormalities.

Lisa: Brady's born, and almost immediately they knew something was wrong.

Carrie: Yes, you could tell immediately because the room got very quiet.

His parents were told he could suffer seizures and might never walk or talk. He also had unusual birth-marks on his face which could become cancerous.

Lisa: I can't even imagine what that was like for you.

Carrie: Oh it was horrible.

And, they couldn't find a doctor to offer them hope. In desperation, they took Brady to a dermatology convention in Boston to be what's called a "viewing patient."

"Hundreds of doctors passed us by with nothing," explained Carrie, "until this one doctor walked in and said, I can't help you, but I know your man, and he's right down the street."

The man down the street was Children's Hospital plastic surgeon Richard Bartlett. After a long process of expanding Brady's healthy skin, Bartlett removed the birth-marks, replacing them with new skin. He also reconstructed parts of Brady's skull. "You never know when you meet an infant for the first time with one of these conditions, what the potential is," said Bartlett. "The point is to maximize the potential."

To look at Brady today, you'd never know what he's been through, but he'll tell you about it.

Brady: I don't like shots.

Lisa: Oh, I don't like shots either.

"You know what we say," said Bartlett, "when the kids say we don't like shots, we say that just shows your normal."

Lisa: Do you feel better now?

Brady: Yeah.

And so does his family.

"Now when you look into his future what do you see?" I asked Brady's dad, Chris O'Donnell.

"I see a brilliant young man," he said.

Brady has had six surgeries at Children's, and so far, no seizures.

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