Anthony is a loving, talkative and inquisitive seven-year-old. Normally decisive, he has some tough decisions ahead of him: should he become a hockey player or a neurosurgeon?
His interest in neurosurgery is easy to understand: he's interacted with many during his short life, which has included more than 15 surgeries. Anthony was born with spina bifida, a congenital condition caused by the incomplete closing of the embryonic neural tube before birth. His parents were told that he would likely never walk.
But Anthony is full of surprises.
When Anthony was small, his parents attached a foil balloon to the bottom of his crib. Every day, they knocked it to show him what a nice, crinkly sound it made. They knew that he likely would never be able to kick it himself.
One day, from the next room, they heard the 'crinkle'. "There was only one person in the room – Anthony," his mom Lori remembers.
From that first kick, Anthony hasn't looked back. He soon was able to pull himself up to stand.
Since then, Anthony's learned to walk, not once, but twice.
Anthony's parents borrowed a walker from Holland Bloorview. Every day they stood him up in it, until one day he took his first steps. Soon he was marching with the walker around the room.
Because Anthony's legs were turned inward so severely, he needed to have orthopedic surgery at the age of four. After four long months of physiotherapy at Holland Bloorview, he was able to walk once more.
Now he gets around using a rear-facing walker at school and a wheelchair for longer outings. He also can use quad canes for short periods.
For a long time, Anthony didn't speak. This is not a known symptom of spina bifida, so the cause was a frustrating mystery. His parents educated themselves in sign language so they could teach it to Anthony. At Holland Bloorview, he worked with speech therapists.
Then one day, he said "Hi" to another child at Holland Bloorview pool. Anthony's mom could hardly trust her own ears. "It felt like a miracle." Once again, Anthony progressed quickly, soon speaking in sentences. Because of the sign language and speech therapy, the building blocks for language were already in place. "Once he was ready, he just picked up and ran with them."
Anthony attends The Bloorview School. His hand motor coordination is slower than that of his classmates, but he has a computer he can use. With his curious nature, he loves learning.
