{"id":464,"date":"2020-12-25T22:21:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-25T22:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ggc.splashclients.com\/patient-story\/meet-jeremiah"},"modified":"2024-02-26T08:26:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T13:26:45","slug":"meet-jeremiah","status":"publish","type":"patient-story","link":"https:\/\/ggc.org\/patient-stories-1\/meet-jeremiah","title":{"rendered":"Meet Jeremiah"},"content":{"rendered":"
Play peek-a-boo with 9 month-old Jeremiah Licorish of Florence, and you’ll be rewarded with a huge grin that lights up both his and his mother’s faces.<\/p>\n
But this family has been through the unthinkable over the past few months, with very few reasons to smile.<\/p>\n
At first things were going well. Jeremiah was a happy, healthy newborn, doted on by his mother, Aneesa, and his three big brothers. But when Jeremiah was around 5 months old, Aneesa noticed changes in her youngest son’s development that worried her.<\/p>\n
“He started to get weaker,” she shared. “He went from holding his head up to being more slumped and not having any neck control. He stopped reaching for things and wasn’t interested in eating – taking only two ounces of milk.”<\/p>\n
His pediatrician wasn’t initially alarmed, thinking he was just being a lazy baby, but Aneesa knew some-thing wasn’t right. She began advocating for her son, first getting an appointment with McLeod Pediatric Rehab for physical therapy. “As soon as we got there, they said he needed more than physical therapy. He needed to see a neurologist and geneticist as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n
Aneesa reached out to GGC through the Center’s website and received a call the next morning from Shannon Bell<\/a>, Telemedicine and Genetic Services Coordinator in GGC’s Florence office. A typical appointment can take weeks or even months and for some families requires travel, but Bell was able to get Jeremiah scheduled with a telegenetics appointment close to home for the next day.<\/p>\n “Through telegenetics, we met Dr. Clarkson who examined every inch of Jeremiah – from how his arms were not moving, to his floppiness, and even his little webbed toes,” recalled Aneesa.<\/p>\n