Naples, parents give toys to their son with cerebral palsy

Napoli“We decided to give other children the toys that our son, due to his medical condition, can't play with.”

Thus, the parents of Luigi, a 29-month-old boy from Naples with spastic-dystonic cerebral palsy, gastrointestinal and mood disorders, announce their decision to make the toys their son has received available to other children. Valentina and Marino, the boy's parents, explain that the disease is "a tragedy that in Italy claims one new life for every 500 births."

Some insist on calling them "special children," a term we disagree with. In our experience and that of other parents we've met, they are simply unfortunate children, irreparably damaged during birth.

Children like Luigi face a painful and demanding daily life with their parents: hospital stays, specialist visits, physical therapy, psychomotor skills training, speech therapy, and swallowing consultations. They often rush to the emergency room, gasping for breath, undergoing complicated therapies, and living with painful dystonia and sleepless nights. Added to this is the bureaucracy of local health authorities and the lack of professionalism at some of the centers responsible for developing devices to facilitate walking and physical management of the child.

Above all, there's a lack, at least here in Campania, of centralized healthcare coordination to address their needs. "They're not special children." The two parents explain that there's no contribution for the toy they're picking up, but they just need to make sure it "goes to a special or needy child," they say, "and doesn't become merchandise. Just send a note to medicina.solidale@gmail.com to choose the toy and then request the number of the chosen toy."