“Never judge a book by its cover,” is arguably one of the most famous quotes in the world and it couldn’t possibly ring more true with this charming family.
Meet 18-month-old Gavin.
He was born with hundreds of tiny cysts in his mouth within his neck area and lives happily with his two loving parents, Victoria and Joseph Silvestri.
It turns out that Gavin suffers from a rare medical condition known as lymphatic malformation in which the physicians that operated on him said that it “affects one in every 4,000 births” according to Victoria.
During their interview with Barcroft TV, Victoria and Joseph discovered that their baby was going to be born abnormally during their 18-week anatomy scan when the technician noticed he had a mass.
His mother Victoria said:
“When I first found out that Gavin would be different, I was terrified, I didn’t know what to think.”
Not knowing what the future would bring for their family, it was just common sense that Victoria and Joseph would be terrified of the outcome – at least at the start.
When he was born, his mass was a lot bigger than what it was expected to be. But in spite of that, both parents were hopeful with all their thoughts and prayers and decided to document their story in order to help parents were going through a similar situation.
Gavin is blessed with the most hopeful and optimistic parents.
Despite seeing that Gavin needed many surgeries and machines hooked up to him, neither Victoria or Joseph were fazed by the revelation. Instead, both of them, including Victoria, were actually happy instead of sad.
Victoria said,
“I wasn’t crying, I wasn’t upset, because that was him, that was my baby.”
The first seven months of Gavin’s life were spent in the hospital, beginning a long journey where he endured a series of operations and relentless injections.
Victoria describes:
“His doctor would go in with a needle, drain the cysts, inject medicine, insert drains, let the medicine sit for 24 hours, then drain again.”
From that point, the procedure would go on every five days a week for over two months.
Victoria, upon finally having her son out of the hospital describes:
“Gavin is a special little boy because he is the light of our life. He has changed the way we view life completely.”
After Victoria and Joseph share their story on social media, they said that other parents who have children with lymphatic malformation have reached out to them from around the world. Knowing this, both of them were immensely proud and happy to be raising awareness and helping such families along the way.
Even though the couple gets stares from families with children from time to time, Victoria and Joseph never let it get to them. But they will impart knowledge about the condition of their child if other people around are curious.
Victoria echoes what most parents must feel bringing a baby home from the hospital:
“Everything was worth bringing their baby home because as a parent you obviously don’t want to see your child going through that.”
Watch below to learn more of Gavin’s story and the wonderful parents he has.
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