Leonards

Leonards Gailits T18M

My name is:  Mairita Coneva

My age is:  58  

I am mother of Leonards Gailitis, 13 years old. affected by Edwards’ Syndrome, Trisomy 18. Me and Leonards live in Riga, Latvia, Baltic state

About us: 

Till Leo became 3 years old we were sure everything is okay, but still not speaking.  Then we got the result of genetic test - trisomy about 20%. Leo attended special kindergarden.

At the age of 7 we were at the children’s hospital for tonsils treatment. Leo got the anesthesia and his heart stopped for about 10 min...
Now 7 years passed, 2 years ago we lost Leo father.

Leonards attends now special school, we have additional physiotherapy sessions 2 x week, 2-3 times per year we go to rehabilitation course ( 2 weeks). But still there are moments when Leo is somewhere else, not just here and now, it looks that he can hear and see a bit more than us.

Leonards  likes music, especially classical, when young nice ladies are singing. His favourite is Solveig song from Peer Gynt, perfomed by  singer Sissel Kyerkjebo. Leo is very friendly and positive.

I don’t like: to be pitied.

Challenges: I restarted my youth’s hobby - I am painting pastels, watercolors and mixed media art, some pictures you can find at instagram @mairita_art

Goals: to regenerate as much as possible, get Leo back on his own legs and try to find how to use his nonstandard possibilities to hear and see more than average.