When he was born, he was diagnosed with diastrophic dwarfism, a very disabling condition, and his parents were told that he would never walk, he would never talk, he would have no intellectual capacity, and he would probably not even recognize them.
Kad se rodio, dijagnosticiran mu je teški oblik patuljastosti, stanje teškog invaliditeta. Roditeljima je rečeno da neće  nikada hodati, govoriti, imati ikakve intelektualne mogućnosti te da ih vjerojatno neće ni prepoznavati.