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Doctors Wanted Him Aborted, And He Was Born Without Much Of His Skull. Now, He’s Done The Unthinkable
Nearly a year-and-a-half ago, doctors advised Brandon and Brittany Buell that their 23-week-old unborn child had a serious birth defect, and that the best course of action would be to abort him.
The central Florida couple, who are Christians, decided against that course of action. Doctors also warned the Buells that their baby, Jaxon, might not survive birth. His birth defect is known as anencephaly, and the Center for Disease Control describes it as “a neural tube birth defect in which a child is born without parts of the brain and skull.” According to the CDC 1 in every 4,859 babies in the United States is born with the defect.
“We had no idea what to think or feel, but hung on every word that the doctors would give us, believing them, and they informed us early that there was a great risk of Jaxon not surviving the pregnancy,” Brandon told the Independent Journal.
“Either way, we knew we would never terminate the pregnancy and had to give Jaxon a chance, and we had to choose life for him because he couldn’t,” he said.
The Daily Mail reports:
Brandon, who is an assistant to the CEO of a small community bank in Florida, said: ‘We went home that night thinking if you are telling us to abort, we would never know what Jaxon could have been, if he could have survived.’
‘Who are we to decide? We were given a child, we are given a chance and we have to be his voice.’
He added: “We did everything we could to give him a fighting chance and all he’s done since being born is fight right back.”
Defying the odds, Jaxon just celebrated his first birthday last week. This amazing video shows him mouthing his first words and learning to walk.
“I try to stay positive 99 per cent of the time but there is that 1 per cent because I know the reality of the situation – that we’re probably going to outlive him,” Brittany said.
Jaxon had significant medical bills during his first year of life, and Brittany left her job to ensure that she is available for him on a 24/7 basis. Friends of the Buells set up a GoFundMe account to help defray the steep medical costs in caring for the baby boy. Over $70,000 has been raised as of Monday.
The couple also set up a Facebook fan page for their son called Jaxon Strong, which has over 130,000 “Likes.”
Brittany said: “It’s all been so overwhelming in a positive way because we can’t go anywhere without someone stopping us, and saying, ‘hey, what’s your story?’ or they would have seen his picture and say, ‘hey, look it’s Jax Strong!’,” adding, “It’s truly incredible the amount of people he has had an impact on.”
Image Credit: Facebook/Jaxon Strong
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/doctors-wanted-him-aborted-and-he-was-born-without-much-of-his-skull-now-hes-done-the-unthinkable/
