Go Forward Christian
Donation protected
Christian Calamuci is 16 years old. A young man who is ready to walk, ready to run, and ready to embrace life to its fullest!
Born in South Africa and abandoned as a newborn, his body was twisted and contorted, folded in half, his feet placed on his ears. He weighed 18 ounces and measured 13 inches. He remained in the hospital for six months, and then moved to hospice where he was expected to die. In spite of the odds, he survived... and thrived.
That is where the story begins. I adopted Christian when he was 6 years old.
I fell in love with his pictures on an adoption website, and began the harrowing journey of trying to adopt him. His medical issues were confusing and complex, yet somehow I knew I could bring Christian into my family, where he would be loved and cared for. He had all the clinical signs of a lower limb deformity: severe bowing of the tibias, knees that did not bend, and he had no ankle flexion. Abandoned from his twin sister, left with burn marks on his legs, he has been wheelchair-bound since early childhood. To date, there have been countless surgeries and many disappointments.
At age 7, Christian would ask the doctor, "Why can’t you just cut my legs off, give me fake ones and let me be a ‘real boy?’” The doctors told him, “We’ll talk when you're older. Come back when you're 16.”
Christian is now older. Christian is a young man, on the brink of adulthood; an honor student, who just joined JROTC at his high school. A handsome young man with a winning smile who has missed out on being a boy in many ways — but at the age of 16, more of a man than many you will ever meet.
He is a young man who knows and lives with the limitations, the stares, the embarrassment. He wants to walk to be “functionally independent,” attend college, maybe teach, fall in love, have a family, with at least one adopted little girl.
He had bilaterabove the knee amputations at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City on July 13, 2016. Insurance does not pay 100 percent for his surgery. More importantly, they do not pay completely for prosthetic legs. Prosthetic legs are high-tech and very expensive! These prosthetic limbs will allow him to run, walk, jump, and participate in many of the activities we all take for granted and that he has only dreamed of doing.
Christian thanks me every day for adopting him and saving his life. I now need to let him have this life-altering surgery. Please consider a donation, on behalf of Christian, so he can take advantage of modern technology and the prosthetics that are available in this century.
Any small donation to a boy, to a man, to Christian my son, my inspiration and my hope and strength, who needs your generosity so that he is NOT his high school's first wheelchair graduate. He is determined to stand up when his name is called and walk onto the stage to accept his diploma!
With Love,
Christian Calamuci and His Family
--
Born in South Africa and abandoned as a newborn, his body was twisted and contorted, folded in half, his feet placed on his ears. He weighed 18 ounces and measured 13 inches. He remained in the hospital for six months, and then moved to hospice where he was expected to die. In spite of the odds, he survived... and thrived.
That is where the story begins. I adopted Christian when he was 6 years old.
I fell in love with his pictures on an adoption website, and began the harrowing journey of trying to adopt him. His medical issues were confusing and complex, yet somehow I knew I could bring Christian into my family, where he would be loved and cared for. He had all the clinical signs of a lower limb deformity: severe bowing of the tibias, knees that did not bend, and he had no ankle flexion. Abandoned from his twin sister, left with burn marks on his legs, he has been wheelchair-bound since early childhood. To date, there have been countless surgeries and many disappointments.
At age 7, Christian would ask the doctor, "Why can’t you just cut my legs off, give me fake ones and let me be a ‘real boy?’” The doctors told him, “We’ll talk when you're older. Come back when you're 16.”
Christian is now older. Christian is a young man, on the brink of adulthood; an honor student, who just joined JROTC at his high school. A handsome young man with a winning smile who has missed out on being a boy in many ways — but at the age of 16, more of a man than many you will ever meet.
He is a young man who knows and lives with the limitations, the stares, the embarrassment. He wants to walk to be “functionally independent,” attend college, maybe teach, fall in love, have a family, with at least one adopted little girl.
He had bilaterabove the knee amputations at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City on July 13, 2016. Insurance does not pay 100 percent for his surgery. More importantly, they do not pay completely for prosthetic legs. Prosthetic legs are high-tech and very expensive! These prosthetic limbs will allow him to run, walk, jump, and participate in many of the activities we all take for granted and that he has only dreamed of doing.
Christian thanks me every day for adopting him and saving his life. I now need to let him have this life-altering surgery. Please consider a donation, on behalf of Christian, so he can take advantage of modern technology and the prosthetics that are available in this century.
Any small donation to a boy, to a man, to Christian my son, my inspiration and my hope and strength, who needs your generosity so that he is NOT his high school's first wheelchair graduate. He is determined to stand up when his name is called and walk onto the stage to accept his diploma!
With Love,
Christian Calamuci and His Family
--
Organizer and beneficiary
Laura Calamuci
Organizer
Staten Island, NY
Laura Calamuci
Beneficiary