Bounding through the door with an infectious smile is a little four year old named Joshua Lyons.  Immediately he gives the receptionist at Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside a hug and in return, she hands him his favorite sticker.  They are best buds.  The receptionist makes Joshua giggle while his grandmother takes her usual seat in the waiting groom. 

Joshua has a bit of a limp and doesn’t use his right hand as well as his left, but that doesn’t slow him down one bit.  At just four months old, he was diagnosed with a cerebral hemorrhage in his brain which caused bleeding within the brain tissue.  Fourteen brain surgeries to treat epilepsy and hydrocephalus has left Joshua weak on one side of his body. 

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This little dynamo has come a long way.  In fact, his family moved from New York to Newark, New Jersey to be closer to the experts in pediatric specialty care and therapy available here at Children’s Specialized Hospital.  Joshua is a patient of Dr. Evelina Okouneva, pediatric neurologist who has seen the transformation first hand.