Kara Price

During the first week of 2023, that tiny baby—now 17—had his fifth surgery caused by complications of being born 17 weeks prematurely.  It's likely he'll need a sixth surgery this year.  Each year, we walk in the March for Babies, supporting March of Dimes research so that no other babies’ pictures look like the first one above, taken when our son Truman was about a week old.  Please support us in that walk by joining our team as a walker or as a donor by clicking http://www.marchforbabies.org/kaltenbaumer. When we reach out to you each year to ask for your support of Team Truman, we tell you the horrible story of Truman's birth.  What we don’t often talk about is how the lifelong complications from that scary and heartbreaking entrance into the world didn't end when Truman came home from the NICU after 122 days.  Sometime between his third day and his third week, Truman suffered massive brain hemorrhaging—essentially three strokes—leaving him with cerebral palsy.  We don't know exactly what caused it.  It could have been heart surgery at six days of age.  It could simply have been because still-developing brains are not ready to experience the barrage of touch, light, sound, and other sensory inputs four months before they should have to.  Truman’s cerebral palsy primarily affects his ability to speak and eat, but although not visible to others, he also deals daily with the stiffness, fatigue, and pain associated with spasticity.  Ultimately last January, having cerebral palsy led to recurrent knee dislocations and required a surgery to reconstruct the tendons that hold his right kneecap in place.  This year, the same problem has started on his left knee and will require surgery to correct.  Each day, the cerebral palsy or that same series of strokes or just the consequences of being born weighing  just over a pound makes life harder for Truman, as he battles a long list of learning disabilities and challenges.  But despite all of this, he’s a junior in high school taking two AP classes and starting to think about college.  He uses his electives for art classes, extra social studies courses, and is active in his church youth group.  He tears through science fiction audio books.  He uses the same resilience that helped him survive each and every day to tackle this world with grit and grace.  We are proud to be his parents.The March of Dimes has become our family’s mission and passion so that no other baby will go through what Truman did, nor will any other parents watch their baby—and their teen—struggle this way.  We owe March of Dimes for our children’s lives. Both of our sons needed special care in a local NICU which would not have been possible without March of Dimes helping with the regionalization of the NICU system. March of Dimes research led to the development of pulmonary surfactant therapy that Truman and Elliott received to treat respiratory distress syndrome. March of Dimes has helped babies and families like ours for more than 75 years through research, vaccines, and breakthroughs.To learn more about our family’s story, check out our video from the year we served as a March of Dimes Ambassador family at http://youtu.be/Ce89rmtZmWo.  And, please consider joining us a walk or donor at http://www.marchforbabies.org/kaltenbaumer.  Thanks,Kara, Ben, Truman & Elliott