Boy born with partial skull meets Santa, celebrates other childhood milestones
(FOXNews.com)
(FOX News) - More than a year after doctors predicted their son would never see, hear, walk, talk or emote due to a rare condition marked by a partially formed skull, Brandon and Brittany Buell are celebrating most of the milestones typically witnessed by parents of a 1-year-old. The Orlando-area couple ticked off one of those milestones— taking their son, Jaxon, to meet Santa Claus— earlier this month.
“We’re getting close to that one-and-a-half-year mark, and he’s (Jaxon) had the best stretch of health we’ve ever seen him be in,” Brandon Buell, 30, told FoxNews.com.
Jaxon Buell, who had his first birthday on Aug. 27, 2015, was diagnosed at birth with microhydranencephaly, a developmental abnormality marked by incomplete brain and skull formation. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), scientists don’t know what causes the condition nor have they found a cure.
Since one of Brandon’s colleagues started a GoFundMe page to cover 27-year-old Brittany’s salary at a local magazine so she could instead stay home with Jaxon, the Buells’ story hasn’t ceased in going viral.