Gabriel was born on July 16^th, 2007, weighing 7 pounds, 3 ounces (3.260 kg), 20 inches long and his Apgar reading was 9/9. Aside to the fact that he had jaundice, and because of that, he had to be put under the lights for 2 days, he had no other problems at birth.

When he was about 5 months old, I started noticing that Gabriel didn’t act the way babies at his age would interact; he didn’t try to grab any toy or rollover on the bed, he couldn’t sustain his head and couldn’t stand when helped; and it was about time to start eating some kind of food, but this didn’t happen.  The visits to the pediatrician were current, but he never mentioned that something was wrong with Gabriel, maybe because apparently he didn’t show anything out of normal. The doctor asked me to take him to a neurologist. The first one said that Gabriel had microcephaly, he asked for lots of exams, which all came back negative, but he still insisted on the same diagnose. We went to get a second opinion and the neurologist said that he might have a muscular disease; other exams were made, but they all came back negative. By that time, Gabriel was already one year old, and couldn’t sit by himself, with strenuous effort he could hold his head, wasn’t able to eat any solid food and to make things even worst got lots of constipation.

We went to Miami Children, where he was examined by a geneticist and by another neurologist, more exams were administered and they all came back negative, so we ended up not having a final diagnose again.

Even though Gabriel has had little physiotherapy per week, this has helped him to develop a little bit, he’s now able to sustain his head, and also to sit down for few minutes, but he’s still unable to eat any solid food and still has same digestive problems as before.

Today, Gabriel with 2 years and 9 months, still hasn’t any final diagnose for his case, since all the exams taken so far, the results came back negative; more exams are expected for the next months; There was an audition exam administered to him which showed that he’s having hearing loss on one of his ears.

His current neurologist says that what Gabriel needs right now is to go to his therapies every day, and spend a lot of time working with his instructors. Unfortunately, his health plan covers only 2-3 treatments per week, with only 30 minutes duration each.

I was doing a research on clinics that offer physiotherapy and came across Therapies4kids, located in Fort Lauderdale – FL. This clinic offers intensive treatments every day of the week, for about 4 hours or more; each section costs $125 per hour, the health insurance might pay for half of it, and the other part we are responsible for the payments. We don’t know how long he’ll need these therapies in order to help him on simple tasks such as eating solid food, start talking or walking, but we know for sure how important these treatments are for his life, and even though I know God is always on control of his life and our lives, I also know I need to do everything I am able to do, as his mother.

I’m writing this e-mail, telling you Gabriel’s story and asking for your help to pay for his intensive treatments. Thank you and God bless you!