Even while she was pregnant, Shelly and Rob were offered five abortions. And the reasons were very serious. Doctors determined that the fetus had a number of conditions: spinal cleavage, rare chromosomal abnormalities, and hydrocephalus.
Doctors warned that the baby either would not survive or would live with serious physical and mental problems.
“I think maybe if we had been younger we could have been affected. But we wanted to give Noah a chance at life.”
The family bought a small casket for Noah and prepared for the worst.
When Noah was born, he had less than 2 percent of his brain. This turned out to be totally unexpected news, but the Walls weren’t about to give up.
Doctors put a shunt in his skull to drain excess fluid from his brain and performed spinal surgery.
At three years old, Noah had a brain scan, which revealed that his brain had enlarged to 80 percent.
This is an incredible case. Some doctors speculate that the brain was compressed, and after the fluid was pumped out, it spread out. But even if that were true, Noah still could not eat, drink, see, or hear.
His parents surrounded Noah not only with love and care, but they are constantly involved with him. Noah is making amazing progress. He is practically on par with his peers in his intellectual development. After rehabilitation in Australia at the Radical Brain Training Center, Noah learned to sit up without support.
His parents believe that Noah will learn to walk.