A British boy born with just 2% of his brain has moved his foot for the first time after undergoing cutting-edge developmental treatment.
Medics did not anticipate that Noah Wall, now seven, would survive past a few days. He was born with a severe case of Spina Bifida, a condition that stunts the development of both the brain and spinal cord.
Convinced that Wall would be born with irredeemable disabilities, doctors urged his parents, Shelly and Rob, to abort their little boy.
“We were offered termination five times,” Rob says in the documentary, “The Boy With No Brain.”
Unwilling to accept that their son’s life was hopeless, the parents chose to keep their baby — and what a wonderful decision that was. Indeed, by age three, Noah’s brain had grown to 80% of what it should be and he rapidly began attaining all his regular cognitive faculties.
Experts were dumfounded.
“He has surprised us through his life so far. He’s completely remarkable,” Neurosurgeon Claire Nicholson, Noah’s consultant, remarked back in 2016.
“[It] doesn’t matter how many statistics you throw at something,” she said of Noah’s miraculous recovery. “You can’t ever know.”
“To hear his brain’s almost back to normal is beyond belief,” Shelly added, according to Right to Life UK. “Rob and I broke down when we heard the news. It was like a dream. I’ve never known anything like it. Even the consultants were in tears. Every time we see the doctors, they just shake their heads. They’re just amazed at what he can do.”
Noah is continuing to undergo treatment that aims to develop the way in which the brain sends messages to his limbs.
Every year, the bubbly youngster hands out presents to staff at Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle, England — the facility in which he was born. With his treatment going so well thus far, Noah is hopeful that it won’t be long before he’ll be able to walk into the hospital on his own two feet.
The BBC recently caught up with Noah as he bestowed festive joy upon those passing in and out of the hospital, kitted out in a Santa costume and whizzing around in a wheelchair adorned with festive decorations.
When asked what he wanted for Christmas, Noah said he’s wishing for a new toolbox.
But what does he want to make?
“I know,” he said excitedly. “A shelf. A level shelf, not a wobbly shelf,” he exclaimed, roaring with laughter.
What an amazing little guy!