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A boy who spent the first thousand days of his life in the hospital is finally getting to go home. When Francesco Bruno was born in December of 2019, his parents were told he would likely only live for a few minutes. He had a life-threatening genetic condition affecting his bones and muscles. But the little fighter defied the odds and survived, although he required round-the-clock care, a ventilator to breathe, and a feeding tube.
For the first three years of his life, Francesco has only known the inside of a hospital, but that’s all changed now that he’s gotten well enough to finally go home. "We're very happy, nervous, tense, scared, overwhelmed, really happy, overjoyed,” says dad, Emanuele Bruno, about his son getting to go home. “It's just a melting pot of emotions." And for the staff at Chicago’s La Rabida Hospital, who’ve grown close with the family over the last couple of years, the move is bittersweet.
The family still faces a lot of challenges. Both parents have had to get training on caring for Francesco once he’s back home. But the family looks forward to bringing some normalcy to their lives. "We're going to do this one day at a time, like we've been doing until now," says Emanuele.