Jayden's Joy

Six-year-old Jayden has no shortage of energy. Born at just 29-weeks gestation, the former preemie was diagnosed with intractable epilepsy, which caused seizures that were sometimes several minutes long. He used a manual wheelchair due to spasticity in his legs, and received all his nutrition through a g-tube in his stomach. 

Jayden was enrolled in Blythedale's Day Hospital program two years years ago to receive comprehensive feeding, speech, occupational, and physical therapies. As an energetic toddler who had not previously attended school, he wasn't used to sitting in a classroom at first, but today he thrives in second grade. 

In therapies, Jayden works on using his full foot for walking, including heel-striking rather than toe-walking, and is working in occupational therapy on how to don and doff his socks and shoes. He even created a book on how to do it. 

Since attending Blythedale's Day Hospital program, Jayden has made significant gains; medically, socially and therapeutically, no longer requiring feeding therapy and needing very little speech therapy. 

Students at Mount Pleasant Blythedale School attend school while also receiving necessary therapies and medical supervision that they wouldn't otherwise be able to receive in the community. 

"It's so important for these children who have these medical complexities to continue to receive their education so that they can go to school and also get the treatment they need," said Day Hospital Unit Chief Rebecca Carlin, MD, FAAP. "At night, they can go home and be with their families." 

In the fall of 2023, when Jayden was in the first grade, his class carved a pumpkin as part of the Science module. The children were able to take out the seeds and then planted the seeds in the classroom garden. After they were planted in the soil, the class tended to the seeds with water and sunlight. However, over the holiday break, the seeds weren't watered and the plants withered and died. Jayden took it in stride and understood that it was part of the process, said his teacher, Jennifer Delbianco.

In the spring, the class planted seeds outside in the School's garden. They worked with the high school science teacher, Nadiesta Sanchez, to secure a plot of land. The class reused the soil that those initial pumpkin seeds were in and planted new plants. A few weeks went by and Jayden started to notice that one of the sprouts didn't look like any of the others. In fact, it was a pumpkin seed that had persevered through the winter! 

Over the summer, Ms. Jen's class would tend to the garden and continue to tend the pumpkin, ensuring it received water and sunlight, and, according to Jayden, "a lot of love." 

The pumpkin grew so big that they knew that this year, while Jayden is now in second grade, they would have to carve it before it got too heavy to carry.

Jayden's second-grade class and his first-grade peers got to carve the pumpkin and pull out new pumpkin seeds, restarting the life cycle. 

"I think this just shows how tenacious these students are," said Ms. Jen. They never give up and they don't let anything set them back."