Two-year-old Harper Comparin has spina bifida, a rare condition that caused her spinal cord to fail to develop properly, making walking and movement difficult. While there is no cure for spina bifida, there are treatments that can help, and Harper has undergone multiple surgeries and trips to the hospital, according toABC News. But the hospital stays have become a nerve-wracking experience for the young girl, and have caused her to lose trust in the doctors who treated her, the news station reported.
That’s when Dr. Michelle Schultz of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, began brainstorming a way to regain Harper’s faith in her doctors.
“That was a big barrier we really had to cross at first, to regain her trust,” said Schultz, who is treating Harper at the hospital’s pediatric rehabilitation program.
“I like the tune of that song,” Schultz explained to ABC of playing the song while Harper practiced walking on a small treadmill. “I use it like a metronome. I want her to walk to that beat. Doo doo doo! Pick up her speed, walk faster.”
ABC Action News
After practicing her steps to the beat of the happy tune, Harper soon found trust in her doctors again. As her determination and confidence grew, Harper began to talk more often as well.
Harper is now able to walk better than ever before, which has delighted her proud parents, Fred and Erica Comparin.
“When I first saw her taking five, six, seven steps across the room, I was like ‘Are you serious?’ ” Fred Comparin, Harper’s father, told thenews station. “She’ll now just walk up to total strangers and just say, ‘Hi!’ ”
Around 1,600 babies are born each year with spina bifida, according to theCenters for Disease Control, and infants with the condition usually have more than three hospital stays in their first year of life.
To help in spina bifida research, consider donating to the Spina Bifida Associationhere.
source: people.com
