My name is Dana, this is a picture of my son, Nicholas & his CCI dog, Feathers, from 1999.
I am a pediatric nurse & the cofounder of the Special Moms Network, www.specialmomsnetwork.com. Our mission is to educate, support & empower mothers of special needs children so that all of our families can reach their optimal potential. Nicholas was born in 1993 with a heart defect. Even then, it was easily correctable with open heart surgery. I had cared for so many babies who had this defect & the prognosis for a full recovery was very good.
This was not Nicholas’s case. He had a lot of complications. When he was nine months, he survived a fifteen minute cardiac arrest. He now also had cerebral palsy.
Even though he was nonambulatory & nonverbal, he understood everything. He tried his best everyday to accomplish the most minute tasks.
I even wrote a book, The Ties That Bind, about Nicholas & Louise, the wonderful woman & fellow PSN member, who helped me care for him. This was also as I worked, had Rachel & Jackson to raise & was a single parent. We are all PSN members.
I sent this picture to President Clinton & received a letter back from him, which is proudly displayed in my home.