Carter Geransky was born November 19th, 2012 at 27 weeks and 3 days gestation. He is a very ambitious toddler who knows his alphabet, numbers, shapes and colours. He loves the outdoors and visits to the park. Although Carter seems like a typical 2 year old, he cannot walk unassisted and here is his story.

Carter has an identical twin brother Brody. They were born premature due to twin to twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) which affects 15 percent of identical twin pregnancies. TTTS is a disease of the placenta which develops during a multiple pregnancy involving identical babies. During development the placenta may be shared unequally by the twins causing an unequal distribution of nutrients. The recipient, Carter or baby with a larger portion has had too much blood and amnionic fluid while the donor, Brody had to deal with too little nutrients. Both boys had a rough start to life spending 141 days in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).

At a year old Carter was diagnosed with spastic diplegia, a type of cerebral palsy which affects mobility of the legs. It is a chronic neuromuscular condition of spasticity which causes a tightness or stiffness in the muscles of his legs. Because of the tightness, Carter's attempts at standing or walking is frustrated by the fact that he is tippy toed. This condition in most babies corrects itself but not in Carter's case.
Due to this diagnoses, Carter is still not able to walk unassisted. He has, following many hours of therapy such as physiotherapy, water therapy and Anat Banial method, just recently learned to walk with assistance. Wearing specially moulded braces, Carter can manage 10 steps on his own and is very proud of that accomplishment. He is a very determined little boy who wants to run and play with his brother Brody.

Every day Carter faces challenges that most parents and children take for granted like climbing stairs, getting in and out of his chair or car seat unassisted, following the other kids at the park and keeping up with Brody. Even through all of this, Carter remains strong and committed to walk normally without braces.

There is hope for Carter in that there is a surgeon in the states who perform a non invasive surgery of the legs which will release the stiffness and spasticity of the hamstrings. This in turn will allow Carter to walk flat footed without the assistance of braces.

This particular surgery is not available in Canada. Carter's family will be travelling to New York for this surgery in October 2015 with an expected out of pocket cost of $20,000 for the surgery alone.

There has also been a Facebook page setup called 'Carter's Journey to Walking' to follow his progress.