Finding a Way, Together

Whenever Kobthong (also known as “MP”) went in for prenatal checkups, it seemed that the little boy she and her husband, Raffy, were expecting was developing just fine. “Everything looked perfect,” she said. “Everything looked like it was supposed to look.”

But when little Franco was born, the young couple learned that their son had significant physical problems. “He had only two pumping chambers in his heart and three pulmonary arteries instead of four.”

Franco was diagnosed with dextrocardia with Situs Inversus, a condition in which the heart and other organs are positioned abnormally. The news hit the young parents very hard, and when a doctor told them that he would likely only live a few months, they were devastated.

“That’s when my husband said, ‘No! We will find a way!’”

And they did. The couple, who live in Williamsburg, quickly connected with pediatric experts in Boston who performed life-saving surgery on Franco’s heart. When the family returned home after many months in ICU, Franco started receiving specialized speech and physical therapies from CDR.

“I never thought he would crawl,” said his mother. “But our CDR therapists never gave up on him, and they showed that they cared about him and his progress in a thousand different ways. They were always so patient, and they gave me hope every time they visited.”

The visits from Franco’s CDR therapists helped MP almost as much as they did her son. “I looked forward to them coming to the house. They showed me what I can do to help him improve. They made me a part of his success. And they continue to help me push him to do more.”

Franco not only learned to crawl, but he can now walk for short distances and is making progress in other ways as well. Doctor visits, CDR therapy visits, and Franco’s participation in CDR’s Developmental Playgroup keep him and his mom very busy, but not so busy that they can’t enjoy all the progress he’s made.

“He has been through so much,” said his mom. “We didn’t know if he was going to make it. But now we believe he is a miracle.”