A young boy from Woodbury is defying the odds of being different by finding strength within himself and his mother’s love to give him a happy, healthy and productive life.
Although Christopher Buchanan, 8, was born with Tessier Cleft Lip and Palate, an extremely rare birth defect which left him blind, his mother Lacey Buchanan, describes him as a “normal 8-year-old boy who loves playing the violin, reading and wrestling with his little brother.”
“People say things like why does he look like that? Why does he have red eyes?” says Buchanan. “I just say he was born that way.”
When Christian was born, parts of his skull were exposed. Fissures isolated his nose from the rest of his face and his mouth couldn’t close. His eyes never developed. Where irises and pupils would normally be, there was only tissue resulting in Christian being blind.
“We were really excited, but we hadn’t been planning on having kids just yet, so we were also a little scared as first-time parents typically are,” says Lacey on realizing in June 2010 she and her husband, Chris Buchanan, were having a baby.
The first anatomy scan was performed when she was 18 weeks pregnant. The doctors noticed a cleft, but also believed something was different about his condition. As the pregnancy progressed, Buchanan was transferred to a maternal fetal specialist at Vanderbilt where doctors explained Christian’s specific form of defect was serious.
“The doctors told us they didn’t know what’s going on, if he’d be compatible with life or if he’d be able to breathe on his own,” says Buchanan.
The doctors prepared the couple for the worst-case scenario. Buchanan delivered Christian on Feb. 18, 2011 via C-section. While performing the C-section, the umbilical cord wasn’t cut in case Christian couldn’t breathe on his own.
“I started crying when I heard him cry because I knew he was breathing on his own,” says Buchanan. “I kept asking Chris to go look at him and tell me what was going on. A weird hush fell over the room and no one would say anything.”
Once Buchanan had healed well enough to walk, she immediately went to the NICU to see Christian for the first time. She says everyone around her, including family and friends, were constantly crying and demonstrated a feeling of doom and gloom. When entering the NICU, the nurses were very solemn, and no one congratulated the new mom.
“Looking back, I didn’t realize why everyone was so sad,” says Buchanan. “I was just so happy he was alive.”
At four days old, doctors put a feeding tube in Christian’s stomach and closed the exposed parts of his head. During the procedure was the first time his parents were able to see the extent of the cleft lip and palate. No one had told them the severity of the facial deformities.
Buchanan states Christian’s development during the first five years was a struggle, and there was a time when it was painful to watch him have a hard time doing things typical kids could do. He was in therapy three to four times every week to learn how to speak, which didn’t occur until age 3 or 4.
“He didn’t say ‘mama’ until after the age of 3,” says Buchanan. “The fact he speaks so well now is something we don’t take for granted since we were told he may never learn to speak intelligibly. He now speaks incredibly well with a normal vocabulary for an 8-year-old and can do almost everything a normal child his age can do.”
Christian is currently learning to read braille, and his mother says he is doing fantastic, and she is learning to read it with him. Buchanan focuses on giving him the best possible experiences and increasing his confidence with karate being a big help in doing so.
“I really think it’s been the same as raising any other kid for the most part,” says Buchanan. “Christian is an individual with his own likes, dislikes, personality and quirks. This has been a beautiful journey and has made me a better person and who I am today.”
The family is not currently planning on having Christian get prosthetic eyes since more than one plastic surgeon has said it would take many surgeries and they are unsure if those surgeries would work.
“Prosthetics would be for the comfort of other people,” says Buchanan. “Christian can’t see it. We don’t want to put him through things to make other people more comfortable. That’s not his responsibility. It’s not his issue. It’s theirs.”
The Buchanans had a second child 18 months after Christian was born. Buchanan says Chandler, 6, and Christian are best friends, love each other and complement each other well. The brothers love wrestling together, and Chandler is always happy to stand up for and help his older brother.
Christian has recently started to understand when someone says something about him, but his mother has worked hard to help him stay positive. She says thus far, he’s been really good about not taking in those opinions.
“I know it will get harder as he gets older, but we are building him up now,” says Buchanan. “It bothers me more than it does him.”
“There are so many things Christian’s taught me, with the most important being to see the value of each person,” says Buchanan. “There have been many instances over his lifetime where I’ve heard people say those with disabilities aren’t as valuable, can’t contribute economically or are burdens, but it’s not a burden that I have to take care of him and his extra needs. It’s an honor that I get to love deeply, serve deeply and learn how to love, sacrifice and serve since he deserves that.”
Christian is now in third grade, loves music, is learning to play the violin, and is very much into technology.
“I just hope Christian will do things that make him happy, and he’ll always have confidence in his value because there are people who are going to tell him differently. I want him to never doubt his place in this world,” says Buchanan. “He has a purpose and is meant to be here. I hope he finds that purpose and chases it hard. I also hope he teaches other people that same thing. If Christian needed vision to fulfill his purpose, he would have vision. He has everything he needs to serve his purpose and can show others how to do that on their own.”
