🗞️ GeneralThe mother wanted to give her son away – but this father said: «You are needed»
Just 99 seconds after Misha was born, the words «Down syndrome» were spoken. His mother couldn't live with the diagnosis and left. His father Evgeny made a different choice – and has been raising the little boy alone, and full of love, ever since.
«I'm afraid your baby has Down syndrome»
Every day, countless babies are born around the world – and every single one is a blessing. None deserves less love, affection or care than another. And yet not everyone sees it that way. Children with Down syndrome are still met with prejudice and uncertainty. A father from Russia wants to do away with exactly that stigma: Evgeny Anisimov, 33, is raising his son Misha as a single father.
The news reached Evgeny and his wife just 1 minute and 39 seconds after their son was born. «I'm afraid your baby has Down syndrome,» the doctors said. In that moment, Evgeny recalls, he thought above all of his wife: «I believed it would be even harder for her.» He decided to stay calm and support her until the final results came back.
«I remember leaving the hospital and crying. But not for long,» he later told Bored Panda. «Later I was a little ashamed of those tears. Because nothing in my life had changed. I still had both arms, both legs, my professional skills. My son had been born – the child is special, his life and his fate matter.»
