Family Of Santa Clarita Boy With Cerebral Palsy To Hold Concert For Therapy Funds – KHTS Radio

A Santa Clarita family is hoping to raise money for specialized physical therapy for their 20 month-old son who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

Mihaela and Sterling King were first introduced to cerebral palsy in the spring of 2018, when their twin children were born 32 weeks into Mihaelas pregnancy, nearly two months premature.

In the operating room, the Kings first son, Abram, was delivered first, soon followed by his twin sister a few minutes later.

It was at that point, when his sister was taking her first breaths, that Abrams lungs collapsed.

We heard the nurses and doctors call code white, which means that the baby is not breathing. The NICU respiratory team began working on him. When his lungs collapsed, his throat seized up, which made it impossible for the doctors to intubate him, Mihaela King wrote in a statement. They worked on him for about three minutes, trying to get an airway established. Meanwhile, we were becoming frantically concerned if they were going to successfully restore his breathing before it became too late.

Photo courtesy of King family

After several tense minutes, the medical team was able to successfully intubate Abram.

Abram spent five weeks in the NICU, where he learned how to breathe, suck and swallow at the same time. Upon finally being allowed to come home, his parents soon began to notice that Abram was not reaching many of the developmental benchmarks at the same rate as his sister, still being unable to sit independently by the time he was 10 months old.

His beautiful and bubbly personality, which is irresistible, was developing just fine, Mihaela said. He seemed aware and alert, but his body was not following suit.

After a series of medical events, he was eventually diagnosed with cerebral palsy. However, this did nothing to stifle Abrams sweet and loving personality, according to his parents.

The greatest gift is that this boy has come with such an optimistic, happy and sweet personality, which is fitting for living with such a challenge, Mihaela said. We look in his eyes and we can literally see the most sincere desire to physically do all the things his siblings are able to do, but he simply cant.

Related: GoFundMe Page, Benefit Concert Set Up To Fundraise For Infant With Cerebral Palsy

Today, Abram is now an energetic and affectionate 20-month-old, adored by his siblings and always happy to interact with others, according to his parents.

Hes very happy, very loving and caring. He loves people, he loves to cuddle in and he loves to give big, wide-mouthed, open kisses, Sterling said. Hes a phenomenally social little kid. He gets along with the rest of his siblings more than the rest of his siblings get along with each other.

Mihaela agreed, noting that despite his physical limitations, Abram is always ready and excited to be involved in whatever is going on.

Hes very tender and cuddly, Mihaela said. Whenever somebody leaves the house, even though he cant walk alone, he always nearly jumps out of my arms and moves his body forward to say goodbye and hello.

Abram with one of his older siblings. Photo courtesy of King family

Abram knows what he wants, but he is just unable to get his body to follow his commands, according to Sterling.

I think his No. 1 love is music. Whenever he hears music, he stops, he listens, he has this long gazing smile on his face and he moves his arms to it, Sterling said. It calms him down, chills him out Ive never seen an almost-2-year-old have such a connection to music.

The Kings plan to enroll Abram in the NAPA (Neurological and Physical Abilitation Cen) Center in Los Angeles, which was founded in 2008 by a mother who had spent two decades travelling the world in search of therapies for her own son.

The NAPA Center offers three weeks of intensive therapy sessions for children with cerebral palsy and other motor delays, and they utilize unique and successful therapy methods from all over the world.

The cost of such targeted, intensive treatment is marked at $118 per hour, which when calculated to the average session of four hours a day, five days a week, for three weeks, adds up to around $8,000, according to the NAPA website and the Kings.

Despite the cost, the Kings believe that the therapy programs provided at NAPA show great potential for helping Abram navigate the world around him and adapt to his unique set of challenges.

Children with cerebral palsy are known to progress more in the three weeks of intensive therapy at NAPA than they do in 12 months of traditional physical therapy, Mihaela said.

The King family is looking into a variety of therapies at NAPA aiming to re-train Abrams central nervous system and create new pathways to and from the brain, which allows new or improved motor skills in children with motor delays.

NAPA offers a combination of NeuroSuit, Multifunctional Therapy Unit (Spider Cage) and Cuevas Medek Exercises (CME) to improve automatic balance response and motor control.

The NeuroSuit is a support outfit made of a vest, shorts, knee and elbow pads, gloves, shoe attachments and a hat if necessary, all pieces interlocked by elastic cords. Worn for two-hour periods under the supervision of physical and occupational therapists, these cords assist with proper alignment of the body and essentially frame the body from the outside.

A Universal Therapy Unit, or Spider Cage, is a suspension system, which works with the use of belts, elastic cords and therasuits to support pediatric patients as they work through their exercises.

During CME, the therapist physically manipulates the child to stretch out tight muscles and train the muscles in groups. These manipulations eventually allow the child to gain control over his or her abdominal trunk, which is necessary to perform basic gross motor activities such as sitting, standing and walking.

For me, what is most appealing about (NAPA) is that they are very intensive, and the way they approach therapy and the way that they actually push the kid a couple steps forward, Mihaela said. Above what they are able to do, and in turn, they work on the skills that they are lacking so they are able to progress, usually to the next skill level.

Abram King with his twin sister. Photo courtesy of King family

The Kings are hoping to enroll Abram in three to four of these three-week sessions a year in an effort to vastly improve his motor control, with the current goal of getting him able to walk unaided. At this point, Abram is able to sit himself up and walk using a walker, but his parents hope to make him more mobile while his young mind is more elastic.

After 5 years old, his brain is not going to be as malleable and trainable as it was before five, so for us, our whole goal is to have as much early intervention and therapy as possible, because without it, after 5 the hardest thing possible will be to get him to walk, Sterling said. Whether he walks or not will depend on him getting the proper therapy that he needs before he is 5 years old, or else he may be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

In this race against time, Abrams parents hope that treatments available at NAPA would improve his quality of life, helping him learn imperative skills related to balance, motor functions and core body strength to eventually walk on his own, according to his mother.

Mihaela noted she realizes that it can be uncomfortable to interact with those who are affected by disabilities if one is unfamiliar with the condition, but that her experience as a parent has helped her to understand that, regardless of their condition, everyone can carry the same humanity within them.

Photo courtesy of King Family

Cerebral palsy is not something to be afraid of. People that have a disability like that, they can be as warm and happy and friendly and need as much connection as anyone else, Mihaela said. Its just their body doesnt work like ours. But their minds and their hearts are all the same as ours.

The Kings hope to be able to raise enough funds for several sessions so that they can focus less on fundraising, and more on getting Abram the therapy he needs to grow and thrive.

I would love everyone to know how much gratitude we have for whatever anyone is capable of doing to support him. Everybody has a chance to play a part in the future of his life, Sterling said. I never realized how important that is in times past when I had the chance to (donate), the fact that every little bit is really an investment in a child or a human beings future and they can all have a part of that.

A GoFundMe page and February benefit concert have been set up to raise money to send Abram to the NAPA center

The GoFundMe campaign is solely for the purpose of sending Abram to NAPA in Los Angeles, which is touted as one of the most advanced physical therapy clinics in the world, according to the family.

The benefit concert is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 1 at the Newhall Family Theatre, located at 26407 Walnut Street in Newhall.

The concert is set to start at 6 p.m. and last until 8 p.m., and is described as a classical concert performed by string musicians, and is also set to include a silent auction, according to officials.

For more information on the benefit concert, Venmo @Mihaela-King and write the buyers email in the comment section, email ticket requests to abramsjourney@gmail.com, or visit here.

To donate to the GoFundMe page, click here.

Ed. Note: The price of sessions at NAPA have been updated to reflect latest billing trends.

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Family Of Santa Clarita Boy With Cerebral Palsy To Hold Concert For Therapy Funds - KHTS Radio