May 27, 2009 6:10 pm US/Eastern
Parents Credit Children's For Saving Infant's Life
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
-
-
Charlie Capodanno was just 5-months-old, it was the doctors and nurses at Children's who saved his life.
WBZ
As parents, we'd all do anything to protect our children, but when illness strikes, it's good to know we have the resources of Children's Hospital right here in our own backyard.
When Charlie Capodanno was just 5-months-old, it was the doctors and nurses at Children's who saved his life. But for Charlie and his family, surgery was just the beginning.
"They just knew from the MRI that there was a large mass on his brain," says Deirdre Carey, Charlie's mother.
What they found was a rare and often deadly cancer. "The cancer he had only effects 10 children in the country a year," says Deirdre. "It was the size of a large lemon in a 6-month-old brain," she adds.
Charlie's family was devastated. "We didn't know if he was in fact going to survive the surgery and if he did, what condition would he be in? Would he walk, would he be able to talk?" says Carey.
Charlie did survive the surgery, but he still had a long way to go. "Charlie endured 21 months of chemotherapy and 11 brain surgeries in total," says his mother.
"He's a little trooper. He's a strong little boy. He's gone through a lot and you'd never know," she adds.
Today Charlie is a healthy and happy 9-year-old who loves to play football with his brother and bounce on a backyard trampoline.
After all those treatments at Children's and the Floating Hospital, he's unstoppable. And his mother credits Children's surgeon Dr. Liliana Goumnerova. "We don't use the word miracle lightly in this house, but she performed a miracle on him," says Deirdre.
She says she wouldn't trust her child's care to any place other than Children's Hospital Boston. "We met people from Saudi Arabia, we had roommates from London, we had people flying in from Texas, and all we kept saying is 'thank God we live where we live,'" she says.
Charlie still goes to Children's for his follow up care and wants the doctors and nurses there to know how lucky he feels. "Thank you for helping me feel better," he says.
Deirdre Carey has written a book about her family's experience called
"Hope, Faith and Charlie."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments