Olivia Lively is a 9-year-old girl from Bayard who was born with VATER Syndrome, a condition that doesn’t allow her to communicate well verbally or physically and that doesn’t allow her to complete daily tasks, such as eating, drinking and walking, on her own. Despite her challenges, however, Mindy and Josh Lively say their precious daughter has brought their family much joy and happiness and is an inspiration to many other people.
JEFF FIELDER Editor
BAYARD – Olivia Lively can’t walk, eat or drink on her own. She can’t communicate very well either verbally or physically. And she usually can’t focus her attention on something for more than a couple minutes.
However, this 9-year-old girl from Bayard who is severely handicapped can still sure light up a room.
“She’s delicate and tender and loving, and it brings out amazing things in people,” said her mom, Mindy (Miller) Lively. “She can be easy to overlook in a crowd because she’s tiny, but I’m always amazed how certain people will notice her and will make a point to come to her and hold her hand and say ‘Hi’ or ask her how she’s doing. It’s a really special thing to see how she makes so many people smile.”
Olivia has VATER Syndrome, which occurs in one in 10,000 to 40,000 newborns, according to the VACTERL Association. Olivia suffers from two anomalies related to this condition. She has kidney issues, which caused her to have chronic urinary tract infections for a couple years, and she also has problems with her vertebrae, which has caused her to have scoliosis. In addition, she was born without a corpus callosum, the middle part of the brain. It’s the reason she’s confined to a wheelchair and can’t do most things – like eating, drinking or walking – on her own.
Olivia, though, rarely displays anything that could be inferred by other people as a complaint. She’s content with her condition, Mindy said.
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