CMN Miracle Child graduates from high school

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    DERRY TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania (WGAL) — The Children’s Miracle Network Telethon continues on WGAL.

We’re raising money for sick and injured children at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital.

Your donations help give kids the gift of growing up.

You also help them achieve important milestones in their lives.

Miracle Child Caden Capitani marked one of those milestones just last week.

“I can’t believe it. I still remember taking him home from the hospital and wondering, ‘What do we do now?'” said his father, Frank.

Graduating from high school is a major accomplishment for any teenager and their parents, but especially so when you’re a CMN Miracle Child.

“He’s finishing high school. How did we get here? We’ve been so busy looking down and just putting one foot in front of the other,” said his mother, Jessica.

Caden was born with Down syndrome and has been treated for more than a dozen other medical conditions since his birth.

It’s been a difficult journey at times.

“When you have a child with a disability, who is medically complex, you’re just about survival. You’re in the present every day because you’re just trying to get through each day, each hurdle. You don’t really have time for forward-thinking or to dream about what the future might be like because you can’t take those things for granted. And then all of a sudden there’s something like this that I’m forced to look up and look around me and here comes this brick wall of graduation. Like, it’s happening. He’s growing up,” Jessica said.

Along with the challenges, there have been many joys.

“He wants to share his smile with everybody. I’m very proud of him for that,” Jessica said.

“He’s the mayor of the high school. Everybody knows him,” Frank said.

“CMN was a big part of that because that was where at first he met a lot of kids that had similar medical journeys and knew what it was like to spend a good part of your childhood at the hospital. So, being able to make those connections really helped give him the confidence to then just step out wherever he was and in the situation,” Jessica said.

Thanks to CMN, Caden has had the opportunity to travel. He’s also met everyone from sports stars to movie stars.

More importantly, he’s had a village of people supporting him – helping him hit milestone after milestone.

“There’s so many people that helped him get to where he is today. The gratitude is overwhelming,” Jessica said. “My heart’s going to burst, I’m so proud of him. I can’t believe everything he’s gone through to get here. The world is really open to him. It’s whatever he wants to do.”

“I’m kind of overwhelmed with the acceptance that we’ve gotten from him. The support that we’ve gotten. They’ve given him the gift of growing up. He’s getting there. He’s gotten there. He’s a great kid, and he’s got a lot ahead of him,” Frank said.

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