![\"Perfect](\"https:\/\/missiontimescourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/second-pitcure-from-curlee.jpg\")
There\u2019s an unpleasant story behind that switch, and it has to do with the mysterious, polio-like disease that has hit more than 200 people in 31 states.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s called acute flaccid myelitis, and it hit Will in 2014 \u2014 robbing the 8-year-old the use of his right arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t throw or use my hand or arm for anything\u201d he remembers. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even use my fingers to pick up anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The virus \u2014 if that\u2019s what it turns out to be \u2014 mainly seems to affect the young, although adults are not immune. Several people have died, while some people seem to be ever so slowly recovering, at least partially.<\/p>\n
A litany of hospital and doctor visits didn\u2019t seem to be doing Will much good, because doctors and researchers really didn\u2019t know how to treat it.<\/p>\n Its main target appears to be nerve tissue, and that\u2019s where Will\u2019s family decided to attack it. They wound up at Johns Hopkins on the East Coast, one of America\u2019s premier treatment and research facilities and finally got a diagnosis<\/p>\n Will eventually underwent surgery at Rady’s Children Hospital. Surgeons took healthy nerve tissue from Will\u2019s calf and left hand and built a sort of nerve bridge around his neck to his right shoulder, hoping that would help the right arm recover.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s starting to work a little,\u201d Will said. \u201cI can move my fingers some now, and maybe it\u2019ll keep getting better. I sure hope so.\u201d<\/p>\n So back to his Red Sox dreams.<\/p>\n \u201cI just decided that if I\u2019m gonna play baseball, I\u2019d have to learn to do it left-handed, so I just started trying to throw left-handed. I think it\u2019s getting a little better all the time. I\u2019d like to at least be able to play high school baseball at Patrick Henry.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s getting better enough that Will, now 12, can play in developmental leagues for kids coming out of Little League and moving on to the bigger fields.<\/p>\n Will plays first base, and occasionally steps on the mound to pitch He wears his glove on the left hand, catches the ball, then quickly drops the glove, grabs the ball and throws it.<\/p>\n I watched him play a game, and he\u2019s very good at it. Batting is still a problem, but that\u2019s getting better, too.<\/p>\n Will is very cognizant of people like Jim Abbott, who was born without a right hand, yet pitched well in the major leagues for 10 years, including one no-hitter.<\/p>\n Will may never play for the Boston Red Sox, but if he doesn\u2019t, it won\u2019t be for lack of trying.<\/p>\n![\"Perfect](\"https:\/\/missiontimescourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/with-twin-sister-Emma.jpg\")