{"id":12964,"date":"2025-11-30T15:06:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T15:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=12964"},"modified":"2025-11-30T15:06:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T15:06:25","slug":"teen-who-wasnt-expected-to-live-18-months-graduates-high-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=12964","title":{"rendered":"Teen who wasn\u2019t expected to live 18 months graduates high school"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"94\" data-end=\"300\">When Braden West was born with the rare condition <strong data-start=\"144\" data-end=\"172\">Pfeiffer syndrome Type 2<\/strong>, doctors told his parents he wouldn\u2019t survive. His skull was severely malformed, and he wasn\u2019t expected to live past 18 months.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"302\" data-end=\"487\">His mom Cheri prayed just to have a little time with him. At one month old, doctors even sent Braden home so he wouldn\u2019t die in the hospital. But instead of fading, he started fighting.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"489\" data-end=\"655\">Braden underwent over <strong data-start=\"511\" data-end=\"527\">30 surgeries<\/strong>, got a tracheotomy at 3 months old, and even survived a procedure with only a 10% survival rate. Each time, he defied the odds.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"657\" data-end=\"915\">A hospice nurse, <strong data-start=\"674\" data-end=\"698\">Michele Eddings Linn<\/strong>, formed a deep bond with him\u2014believing she might lose him one night, only for him to miraculously pull through. He became the first patient she ever saw leave hospice. Years later, she proudly took his senior photos.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"917\" data-end=\"1135\">Braden learned to walk, graduated high school, and celebrated with a helicopter entrance at a concert. Today, the boy who wasn\u2019t expected to live is <strong data-start=\"1066\" data-end=\"1082\">22 years old<\/strong> and living his dream as a <strong data-start=\"1109\" data-end=\"1134\">volunteer firefighter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1137\" data-end=\"1264\">His mom Cheri says his story is proof that no matter how hard the climb is, \u201c<strong data-start=\"1214\" data-end=\"1263\">never give up\u2014the view at the top is amazing.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Braden West was born with the rare condition Pfeiffer syndrome Type 2, doctors told his parents he wouldn\u2019t survive. His skull was severely malformed, and he wasn\u2019t expected to live past 18 months. His mom Cheri prayed just to have a little time with him. At one month old, doctors even sent Braden home&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=12964\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Teen who wasn\u2019t expected to live 18 months graduates high school&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12966,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12964\/revisions\/12966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}