And He Smiles Anyway

We have another little boy that the peds team has been treating who could teach us all a lesson about staying positive in the face of adversity. He is 8 years old and due to traumatic earthquake related injuires is a double amputee. He lost the majority of one arm and a leg below the knee. The other foot is also injured. In addition he suffered severe facial fractures that took the majority of the structure of his nose. The surgical team has done amazing things to help him. Skin grafts, tending to both stumps, harvesting tissue from his forehead to recreate a nose. And all the while what does he do? Does he cry? Rarely... Does he complain? Not often... Does he misbehave with his father by his side? Never... Instead he adapts, he smiles, he charms, he rolls around in his new little wheelchair using his one stump more adeptly than I could my fully functioning arm to whiz around the unit. He races in his wheelchair with the corpsmen who have grown to love him. He marvels at the pinwheel that turns around and around as he spins the wheels of his wheelchair. He marvels at the ship as you take him top side to see his country from a vantage point he has never seen. As if the loss of these body parts and functions weren't enough he and his father have suffered incredible losses... family, home, the security of knowing what's next in life. This attitude of his has clearly been taught to him by his has father who is steadfast by his side. And this will not go without reward. He is so compelling and so charming and so much in need of complicated and long term services he will be going with his father to the Shriners hospital in Boston to get this much needed care. I have learned a lesson from this little eight year old without him ever having spoken a word to me. In times of adversity and struggle there is hope...