In 2005, Kerry Burton gave birth to her third child, Benjamin. She’d had a healthy, full-term pregnancy but then, Burton recounts, “about two hours after Benjamin was born, we noticed he wasn’t coming back to my room.” To her surprise, she learned that Benjamin had temporarily stopped breathing and was being admitted to the NICU.

Soon, doctors discovered that Benjamin was missing several ribs and that the bones in his neck were malformed. “We sat in the doctor’s office literally looking through books, trying to figure out, what does this mean?” says Burton.

The family was referred to Paul Sponseller, chief of pediatric orthopaedics at Johns Hopkins. “Ben had malformations of all of his cervical vertebrae,” Sponseller explains. The decision was made not to intervene surgically at that point. “We decided to monitor him and wait until he had enough growth in height to correct his head, which over time became very tilted.”

Sponseller evaluated Benjamin’s growth and scoliosis regularly. The plan was to delay surgery until he had neared skeletal maturity, in the teen years. However, at age 6, Benjamin’s scoliosis had worsened, forcing his head forward and down, and his spinal cord was vulnerable.

Sponseller recommended treating Benjamin with halo traction, using weight to straighten the spine, followed by fusion of his cervical vertebrae. The family agreed, and in 2011, after two weeks of traction in the hospital, Benjamin underwent a four-hour surgery by Sponseller and colleague George Jallo, clinical practice director of pediatric neurosurgery. Sponseller used bone from Benjamin’s hip and titanium rods to stabilize his neck. “When Dr. Jallo saw Benjamin’s spinal cord,” Burton says, “he was amazed he was able to walk and develop as well as he had. We feel strongly that God was protecting Benjamin throughout all this.”

During Benjamin’s recovery, Burton says, “Dr. Sponseller was that solid ground for us. He explained things so well and was so good with Benjamin.” She recalls that, while Benjamin was sleeping in the hospital, he lost a tooth. “Dr. Sponseller took out his wallet,” she says. “It was made of duct tape, obviously by one of his kids, and he put money under Benjamin’s pillow. He said the tooth fairy even comes at Hopkins.”

The surgery was a success. Today, Benjamin is in the seventh grade. “He plays soccer,” his mother says. “He doesn’t like to sit still. He’s doing great.” Sponseller believes that Benjamin’s family is a big part of his excellent result. “His whole extended and caring family was amazingly supportive in helping him through the recovery,” he says.

Inspired by her gratitude to Sponseller and the team at Hopkins, Burton and her family’s philanthropy, the Lundy Family Foundation, support a Johns Hopkins orthopaedic outreach program, which sends orthopaedic surgery residents to volunteer in underserved communities in the U.S. and abroad. “I have an interest in mission and have been to Uganda through my church several times,” says Burton. “Dr. Sponseller talked about how they send surgeons all over the world to perform surgeries that kids would never be able to have otherwise. That lines up exactly with what our family thinks is so important. That was a no-brainer for us.”