Joshua was just six months old when his mum learned about ChildVision. He was too sick for his parents to even consider calling. Less than a year later, Josh became the first full-time student at ChildVision’s special preschool.
His early firsts are something no parent imagines.
One of the one in a hundred thousand children born without eyes. First surgery at less than twelve weeks old. Meningitis, aged four. Autism. Hearing loss. Epilepsy, out of the blue, at age thirteen.
His mum and dad became experts on topics like prosthetic eyes, hormones, and artificial feeding techniques. Joshua himself became expert at knowing the names and dosages of his medications, and talking others through the use of his feeding device called a Mik-Key button that delivered proper nutrition after his seizures.
“I don’t know how he gets up to go to ChildVision,” marvels his mum Jacinta. “He never once says, ‘I want to stay at home.’
At the primary school on campus he was a natural at braille, and went on to become the first student to do a combined year between the primary and secondary schools. Caroline, who is the team leader in Josh’s residential house here remembers “he was so committed, he wore both uniforms.”
This year he found the confidence to go to the GAA Museum at Croke Park
and learn the history of his beloved Gaelic games! And staff here are helping to inform his Beaumont Hospital team about possible triggers for Josh’s seizures.