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Home › Articles › Special Needs › Big Dreams

Big Dreams

Profile of a Young Person With Skeletal Dysplaysia

By Teri Brown

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Danny Fava barely made his entrance into the world when his doctor gave his parents the news: There was something different about their child. Soon, Danny was diagnosed with a form of Skeletal Dysplasia called Achondroplasia, a spontaneous genetic mutation that results in short arms and legs on an average size torso. Achondroplasia occurs in one out of every 26,000 births and is the most common type of the hundreds of types of dwarfism.

Danny is now an 18-year-old college student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He looks back on his life and feels extraordinarily fortunate about the way he was raised and the people who have been a part of his life. "I was lucky, because I was born to two parents who were going to treat me like any other child – no matter how tall I was," says Fava. "So once they found out that I was going to live a normal and healthy life, my height made no difference to them."

A Sense of Belonging
From finding a pediatrician experienced with dwarfism to being born in Queens, N.Y., Fava feels as if he has had his share of good fortune. Because of his experience, Fava's doctor was able to point the family to some vital resources, while living in the culturally diverse Queens gave Fava a sense of belonging. "While walking down the street, you noticed people of different nationalities and ethnicities everywhere," he says. "So I was exposed to diversity at a young age, and I feel that has allowed me to accept my difference much easier."

While living in Queens may have enabled Fava to accept his differences more easily, he had a harder time accepting his limitations. Instead, Fava works to find a way around those obstacles. Fava's passion is sports, which may seem like a difficult choice for someone with dwarfism, but Fava, who played organized basketball for several years as a child, has found a way to be involved in sports throughout his life, and wishes to make it his career. "Ever since I saw my first sporting event, when I was 3-years-old, I knew I wanted a career in it," he says. "I was aware that I wasn't going to become the next Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky, but I knew that I wanted a career in some facet of sports."

By the sixth grade, Fava was no longer able to physically keep up with the pace of the game and realized he would have to stop playing. At the basketball awards ceremony that year, Fava's Jersey was retired. Fava remembers it as one of the most exciting moments of his life. "I have also competed in the Empire State Games for the Physically Challenged since I was 5 years old," he says. "I have won numerous medals and was selected in the summer of 1999 to travel to Ireland with an American team and compete over there in various events. The trip to Ireland was a truly amazing experience, as we toured and competed all over the country.

"In order to stay connected to sports during high school, I was the student manager of the varsity basketball team at my high school during my sophomore, junior and senior years and received the Coach's Award my senior year. Right now, I'm going to school to fulfill my passion."

School Is More Than Education
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