After nine years of intense rehab, a boy with cerebral palsy in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China finally took his first steps in front of his father.
At eight months old, the boy named Zhuangzhuang was unable to lift his head or crawl like other babies.
However, his family gave Zhuangzhuang rehabilitation and the results finally bore fruit in May this year.
In a viral video taken on 7 May, the boy suddenly stood up from his chair and walked over to his father, who was using his computer.
His shocked father turned around and saw Zhuangzhuang walking towards him.
After that, he got up and walked away, scarcely managing to hold back his tears as his son took his first steps.
Source: Singtao
The footage happened to be captured on CCTV.
According to Chinese media reports, when Zhuangzhuang was born, he was unable to stand up or lift his head.
Zhuangzhuang’s mother said: “We realized that his condition seemed unusual, so we took him to the hospital for examination.”
He was then diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
After a few years, when children of the same age had already gone to school, Zhuangzhuang was still unable to stand up.
It wasn’t until 2021 that the couple contacted a rehabilitation expert to develop a detailed rehabilitation plan for Zhuangzhuang.
Source: FTV News via Yahoo
Together, the family worked on his rehabilitation exercises, each lasting between five to 50 minutes — almost 10 hours a day.
After a while, Zhuangzhuang was able to eat by himself, put on his shoes, put away his toys by himself, and organise his own schoolbag.
But the major breakthrough came on 7 May.
Zhuangzhuang’s mother was waiting at the “finish line” when he took his first steps, having decided to let him walk unassisted.
Source: Singtao
After watching the clip several times, Zhuangzhuang’s mum wanted to share her joy with the world and uploaded it online.
“The child must have seen that I wasn’t around and tried to walk over to me,” she said. “I was excited and nervous and wanted to walk with him. But his father asked me to wait for him at the finish line.”
“I really didn’t expect that this day would come.”
“We didn’t expect the video to attract so much attention,” Zhuangzhuang’s mum added. “But now we’ve seen everyone encouraging us, we really feel their warmth and support.”
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Featured image adapted from Singtao.
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