What is it like to live the life of your dreams by beating a disability you cannot change?
Jason Benetti, play-by-play announcer for the Chicago White Sox and ESPN broadcaster did better than that.
Jason was born 10 weeks prematurely. During his three months in the hospital as a newborn, he suffered a respiratory illness that deprived his blood of oxygen and caused him to have Cerebral Palsy.
With disarming openness, Jason demystifies Cerebral Palsy, the most common neuromuscular disorder in the world.
Despite early childhood trauma and stigma related to his involuntary movements, Jason went on to become a lawyer and later the play-by- play announcer for the Chicago White Sox — the job of his dreams.
How much of Jason’s creativity derives from pain? And why does he lean on humor?
“I first went into radio because people heard me before they could see me,” he explains. “I know what I look like. But I don’t want my condition to define me.”
He is joined by Doctor Jason Rhodes, Associate Professor, Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon and Director of the Cerebral Palsy and Neuromuscular Program at Children's Hospital Colorado on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, where he is also the Clinical Director for the Center for Gait and Movement Analysis.
Doctor Rhodes explains Cerebral Palsy as a “non-progressive brain injury,” by which he means a condition that cannot be changed. So what happens to a person when they can’t turn the clock back on essentially a stroke that shaped their brain before, during or directly after birth?
From breakthrough surgeries, novel treatments and integrated sports activities, Doctor Rhodes and his team at Children’s Hospital and CU Anschutz help kids walk and move better to feel normal while beating the challenges that make people like Jason Benetti and other young patients truly unstoppable. #UnstoppablePodcasts