THE devoted parents of a little boy with Down Syndrome have told of the joy he brings – and their vow to him that he’ll have the best life possible.
Reproduced from the Irish Sun, 11 Aug 2023 by Emma Kilcawley Hemani
When he was born a month early, it was a traumatic day for mum Sonia, 34, from Puerto Real in Spain, and dad, James, 43, from Clare.
Sonia explained: “When I was eight months pregnant, I couldn’t feel Martín moving, so we went to the hospital, and they put me into labour. After 12 hours, an emergency C-section was ordered.
“Martín was getting really bad so they took us to theatre. They told us everything was fine.
“I remember so many doctors and nurses running around, and they never showed me Martín over the curtains when he was born.”
James explained: “When I was brought over to the table to see Martín, he had something down his throat.
“I picked up his hand and it just flopped on the stainless-steel table. He looked dead, I thought our child was dead.
“The nurse took me back to Sonia — I was in shock and so I kind of lied. When she asked how he was, I was like, ‘Oh he’s doing brilliant’, but in my head he was dead. I was in complete shock.”
Sonia kept asking to see her son, but instead, the nurse took a picture of him while he was being worked on, and Sonia immediately knew he had Down Syndrome.
She explained: “I wasn’t worried he had Down Syndrome. I was worried about what was happening to him.”
While the room seemed chaotic, they finally got a sight of their son.
‘FELL IN LOVE’
Sonia continued: “The midwife brought Martín over and that was when he first stuck his tongue out — we just fell in love.
“The midwife knew that we needed to have a bond because it was just chaos.”
He had to stay in neonatal because he had respiratory problems, but the parents were in love.
And they gave him a very special name as he was born 17 years to the day that James’ brother Martín tragically died by suicide.
James explained: “People say you’re given a gift at birth — and the day itself had a significance. I think I had a fear that the gift was going to be taken away from me. It took me out of a lot of darkness, so that day is very significant to me — very traumatic, very confusing, but it changed my life forever.”
Now fun-loving, bright and bubbly Martín uses Lámh sign language to communicate, as he is non-verbal.
‘BRINGS JOY’
His doting parents say he loves superheroes, hugs and handshakes.
James said: “He brings a lot of joy to people.”
His mum added: “I don’t see a difference to any other kid.”
And since his traumatic birth, his family have worked tirelessly to give him the best life possible.
Sonia explained: “I remember when Martín was born — we were alone in that room talking.
“Of course, for the first few hours you process grief for the child you thought was going to be born and the child who was born. But we knew we had to be advocates for him.”
They started physio with him when he was just two and they speak English and Spanish to him.
NO JUDGEMENT
James said: “When he was put into my arms and he stuck his tongue out, something in me saw through the chaos. The doctors and nurses were very concerned about how we were going to take to him.
“There was a view that this was not the child that we expected.
“I didn’t like that — it wasn’t negative exactly, but there was a certain view of my son. I just swore he’d never see that in me.
“There may be judgements in the world or life that he encounters, but he’ll never see it in me.
“I was very observant of what was around him. It changed my thinking about a lot of things in life.”
The family were supported by their local Down Syndrome Ireland branch in Clare, and now they are both involved — James is the chair of the branch’s board.
They are calling on people to donate to the Tour De Munster, a 600km four-day cycle that started on August 10 to raise money for DSI.