Stories of Potential

Sixteen-year-old Travis Smith can't wait to try out for his Baltimore City high school's football team next fall. He's a lot like most boys his age: non-stop energy. Today, that energy is channeled positively, a big change from when he first started school. Back then, his mother Natasha Lewis was at her wits end, receiving phone calls practically on a daily basis telling her to come pick him up from school. The reasons varied: Travis had hit another child. Travis had lashed out at a teacher or an aide. Travis was threatening to jump from the roof of the school.

Riding a bicycle comes as second nature to most 15-year-old boys. But for Richie Jacob, it was a major milestone. Three months earlier, Richie couldn't walk. He could barely talk. Doctors gave him a 50 percent chance of survival.

The day Sheiku Koroma was born in 1994, his parents had no reason to anticipate the challenges he'd face growing up. He seemed healthy at first, like any other newborn. But a severe infection combined with increased newborn jaundice led to an injury in the basal ganglia region of his brain, an area controlling movement and speech. As a result, Sheiku developed extraparymidal cerebral palsy, which affects his entire body and is accompanied by uncontrollable movements called choreoathetosis.

For someone who has been paralyzed from the neck down, the idea of ever walking again, driving a car or even doing something as simple as giving a friend a hug probably seems like a distant dream.

Little Eric Miller* had a rough start in life. Struggling with severe acid reflux from the time he was just a few days old, he spent much of his first few months shuttling from one doctor to another, enduring countless X-rays, CT scans and other tests. Mom Brenda Baker*, desperate to relieve his discomfort, decided to keep him propped up as much as possible, even putting him in his car seat to sleep. She began to notice that his head seemed larger than normal and tilted to the right.

For the Frost family, the first miracle happened when their family survived a horrific car crash that could easily have ended in tragedy.

Each year, more than 900,000 children in the United States experience physical or sexual abuse, community or domestic violence, neglect or abandonment. Many of these traumatic incidents occur within the caregiving system that is supposed to protect children.

Ramón and Maritza Casso loved their first born son, Juan, with all of their hearts. Like many parents they wanted far more for him than they wanted for themselves. And when their second son, José, arrived seven years later, they felt the same way.

Dominic Maloni could not have been a better baby. He was quiet and easy going. In his first year of life, he met all of the usual milestones sitting up, speaking his first words, walking.

He smiles when his mother cuddles with him, laughs when his sister tickles him, and loves when his father sings to him. As long as he's around other people, that toothy grin and hearty giggle will make an appearance.

To some, Jimmy's happiness may seem surprising. He has faced numerous medical challenges in his short life. But to his mother, Sue Ellen, his enduring smile is proof that no parent should ever take no for an answer.