CHoR’s May calendar kid: Jonah
A star on and off the court
When Jonah was born, both of his hips were dislocated, he had two broken femurs and both of his feet were turned up and out. For Rebekah and her husband, Jonathan, Jonah’s challenges were a shock because “as far as we knew, we were having a perfectly healthy child.”
Jonah’s official diagnosis is spinal muscular atrophy with lower extremity predominance 1, which was caused by a spontaneous gene mutation and is a different gene mutation than the one occurring in the more common type of SMA.
“I like coming to the hospital because they make me feel better,” Jonah said during a Zoom interview. “Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU has every specialist we need including therapists, and the resources are more than I could ask for,” Rebekah said.