Paying it forward: Care for son ’s craniosynostosis spurs mom to run marathon

Will Flanigan can’t stop giggling. Whether he’s teasing his older sister, Spencer, or charming his way out of trouble with his parents, this toddler “is always cracking himself — and us — up,” says his mother, Caroline. “We call him Will the Thrill.” On April 17, 2017, Will brought his good humor from his home in Dallas to the Boston Marathon finish line, where he joined his family in cheering on Caroline as she ran. But this wasn’t just any race. Caroline was running with Boston Children’s Hospital’s Miles for Miracles team for a very special reason: Almost exactly a year earlier, Will was a patient at Boston Children’s. “Something was off”  “Will was about four weeks old when we first noticed something was off,” explains Caroline. The infant’s nose seemed slightly askew, and one eye appeared higher than the other. At first, she and husband Drew dismissed the facial asymmetry as natural. “We didn’t want to be neurotic parents,” she remembers. “We told ourselves that all newborns look funny at first and that he would grow out of it.” But the concern nagged at them. When they asked Will’s pediatrician about it at his two-month checkup, he agreed that he could see a difference but didn’t want to scare them. When they pushed him, he said he thought the little boy might have craniosynostosis and recommended they see a specialist when they returned from an imminent family vacation to Florida. Finding help for craniosynos...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Diseases & Conditions Our Patients’ Stories Boston Marathon Craniofacial Program craniosynostosis Dr. Mark Proctor Source Type: news