Story by Elizabeth Gamez and photos by Sarah Tenorio
Sibbila Bochkarev, 39, doesn’t know why but she remembers the article clearly.
She remembers it being a leisure day. Before she was even married, before she even thought about becoming pregnant, she began reading Health and zoned in on one article. It said that if the baby waited 20 minutes after birth to shout, it could mean it had infantile cerebral paralysis.
Nineteen years ago, on Jan. 8, during her first child’s birth the baby waited to shout.
The doctors diagnosed her son, Nikita, with the condition she had read about.
Sibbila’s mother was concerned. She told Sibbila and her husband, Andrey, 46, they should leave the baby in the ward. She suggested he be left for an orphanage. But they didn’t. His grandmother regrets her words.
Now a grown man, Nikita wears his mustache well over his evocative smile. His arms and legs are fragile and thin. The condition has affected his muscle tone, motor skills, speech and his coordination but not his spirits.
UNL in Kazakhstan 