It wasn’t until Bobby was a little more than a year old when his mother, Eileen, started to realize that something was off.  He battled high levels of anxiety and it wasn’t uncommon for him to scream and be unruly. When he was a little more two and a half, Eileen enrolled him in a program based in Hudson County for people with developmental disabilities. At the age of four, Eileen and her husband. Robert took their son to Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside to be professionally evaluated. The news they received wasn’t the most favorable, but at the same time didn’t come as a surprise. Bobby was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. For the next five years Eileen and Robert worked closely with Children’s Specialized Hospital in the treatment of their son.

 

Just as things were starting to fall into place, Bobby experienced a near fatal setback. In June 2011, Bobby suffered a seizure. After an initial evaluation, doctors concluded that Bobby would need to be transferred to Newark Beth Israel in Newark to receive emergency brain surgery. After the surgery Bobby was in a coma for five weeks.Just as all hope had seemed lost, Bobby awoke from his coma but in a far worse condition than before. All the progress he was making with his asperger’s had been erased, he wasn’t able to walk or talk on his own. Eileen described his condition as “having a baby in a big body.” It seemed as if their nine year old son reverted back to his old behaviors from the time he was two.

The Deegan’s only son, Bobby, never gave up despite his setbacks. Diagnosed with Aspergers at the age of four and having a serious brain injury at only nine years old, Bobby fought everyday on his road to recovery. Bobby continues to receive physical, occupational, and speech therapy in Bayonne, NJ.