{"id":187492,"date":"2018-08-27T11:05:45","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T16:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=187492"},"modified":"2018-08-27T15:25:50","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T20:25:50","slug":"roman-spina-bifida-inspiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/roman-spina-bifida-inspiring\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Roman, the ‘spunky’ toddler with spina bifida who’s inspiring millions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“He’s very outgoing, he’s spunky, he’s got a great personality.” These are the words of Whitney Dinkel, mother of two-year-old Roman, born in May of 2016 with spina bifida. Roman has become something of an internet star. When Whitney and husband Adam started a Facebook page<\/a> to keep their friends and family updated on Roman’s health journey, they never dreamed their son would inspire such a large audience. They told People<\/a>, “It\u2019s a little overwhelming having all these people basically join our private life. It\u2019s kind of scary. But it was exciting because that means we can reach more people and have more people learn about Spina bifida.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ: Doctors said Ezra would never walk, but now he’s dancing with his father<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Spina bifida is a defect occurring in the womb in which the backbone and spinal cord membranes don’t close completely around the spinal cord. Typically, surgery to close this opening is done after birth, but fetal surgery for the condition is becoming more common<\/a>. Roman was one of those who received surgery for spina bifida in utero. According to People:<\/p>\n

Roman was diagnosed with the condition in the womb when Whitney was just 20 weeks pregnant. At 25 weeks, doctors performed surgery on Roman in utero.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTo hear that everything wasn\u2019t \u2018normal,\u2019 we were just devastated,\u201d Whitney tells PEOPLE of the diagnosis. \u201cWe thought it was just the end of the world. We thought nothing but bad things, and that\u2019s obviously not the way it is at all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n