From News 10 in Tampa, Fla.:TAMPA, Fla. -- It's one thing to live with cerebral palsy.
It's another thing to live with cerebral palsy on a remote island where no one's ever seen it before.
That's the case for 4-year-old Christopher Simmons (pictured). He's the only person on St. Estatius, a remote island in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean, to have the neurological disorder."I wouldn't say people have discriminated against him, but people didn't understand what he had," Simmons' mother Cristina Duran said through a translator.
After Simmons was born four months premature, he spent three months in the hospital. For four years, he was the only person on the island with cerebral palsy.
But one day, while cleaning houses, Simmons' mother heard about a new student at the local university who also had the disorder. Eventually, she tracked him down and brought him to see her son.
"He was in a wheelchair that didn't fit," Tyler Sexton recalled. "He had tools that were not adequate."
Sexton pledged to find help for Simmons. After a summer break, he came back to the island with a custom-made wheelchair for Simmons, thanks to the Shriners Hospitals for Children in Tampa. Sexton used to work at Shriners.
The hospital agreed to help Simmons, as long as Sexton could get the boy to the United States.So, Sexton invited 500 guests to a gala in St. Estatius and raised enough money to pay for two trips to Tampa for Simmons and his mother.
"You only handicap yourself by choice. Ten percent of life is what happens to you. Ninety percent is how you react to it," Sexton said.
In October, Simmons underwent surgery at Shriners Hospital for Children in Tampa
that enabled him to walk short distances. Before that, he was unable to walk.
Doctors say he's made significant progress and is currently working toward several other therapy goals.
Sexton is studying to be a pediatrician. He says having hope helps him succeed.
"I've been told I'd be blind, mentally and physical disabled, I would never walk myself, and here we are," Sexton said.
"We're here. And that's what's important."
