My son Cameron was born on February 19, 2002. At just 36 weeks, he was a full month early. When he was born, he didn’t come out crying like a normal infant. Instead, he came out quiet and blue. He needed oxygen held in front of his face while my wife held him. Despite the oxygen and his mother’s arms, he was still not crying. It was obvious something was wrong.

The nurses immediately rushed Cameron to the neonatal intensive care unit where he was put on oxygen and had a whole battery of tests performed on him. The next day, the doctors came to us and asked for permission to take him to a much larger neonatal intensive care unit in the city. They later put him on a ventilator and asked if it was okay to put in an arterial line, which is very dangerous for babies because they can bleed to death. Cameron was on a feeding tube, oxygen and UV lights for two weeks. After he was finally able to breathe on his own, the doctors told us we had to help him learn how to drink from a bottle.

Teaching Cam to drink from a bottle only took a few days. However, everything wasn’t going to be that easy. The doctors told us to expect some serious health problems. For example, he would probably always be small for his age and have asthma. Because he was born with a growth on his eye, he would probably have vision problems. In addition, he would probably need heart surgery to repair a valve that was not closing. They told all of this as they handed our newborn baby to us and sent us home.

Cameron went through months of going back and forth from specialist to specialist. After much traveling we discovered he could have problems for the rest of his life. However, despite the doctors’ dire predictions, Cameron was actually big for his age and doing great!

At six months, Cameron contracted RSV, which inhibited his ability to breathe. Once again Cameron was very sick. He was on breathing treatments at home and when he finally got better he had to receive shots every month to insure he never got the illness again.

Over the years Cameron has continued to improve. Currently, he is a straight-A student and, as far as his growth and health are concerned, he’s bigger than 95% of his peers! Unfortunately for my son, the country’s dire economic situation has forced us to move four times in just four years. However, Cameron handles the changes wellcatching up in class and making friends quickly.

One thing that has really helped Cameron is wrestling. He participates wherever we go and always gives his best effort. Last year, in just his second year of participating in the sport, he became the Pennsylvania Area 4 champion! He currently wrestles for Team Barbarian Combat Sports and is trained by UFC veteran Tim Boetsch and coach Adam Renn. Cameron also recently became the newest sponsored fighter for Sluggo Kids clothing and is working on his green belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All in all, Cameron has overcome many challenges in his life. Many adults wouldn’t be able to overcome the obstacles that have been thrown in his path, but somehow my son has been able to do so. Everywhere he goes Cameron impresses those around him…especially his father.
 

Check out Cameron in action below: