LUCAS SANTOS: Every man who has a dream of having a child dreams of a child like Caesar.
 
You look at him and you just say, “I cannot believe that he is sick."
 
Since early on, you see he loves music.
 
Music is the most important thing.
 
You see kids twelve years old playing what he was playing at four.
 
I'm always saying that the violin helped save his life.

CAESAR: No. I don’t want any blood. No! Mommy!
  
ALINE SANTOS: For one week he was fully paralyzed.
 
He could not even speak.
 
And he would just look at everybody, like moving his eyes.
 
We realized that he loves music.
 
And we put music on for him, but when he heard the violin, you could see tears in his eyes.
 
His face was just that big question mark, "Why?"
 
MARIA ANITA: This is a cool balloon!

CAESAR:  Wow! A Bear!

Maria Anita!

MARIA ANITA: It's mine, Caesar.

CAESAR: No, it's mine too.

MARIA ANITA: No! It's mine.
 
CAESAR: Why I cannot walk?

ALINE SANTOS:  When he started to speak again, he would ask, "Why can't I move?" "Why am I sick?"

DOCTOR: Kick me. Can you kick me? Kick me.

LUCAS SANTOS: This was the most difficult question to answer because what can you say?

CAESAR:  I can’t walk.

LUCAS SANTOS: You see your child, five years old, crying to you not of pain but of sadness—that is very tough.
 
Everything was dark. Everything was dark.
 
I love this boy too much. If my boy would go, I would have no other thing.

CAESAR:  You are crying. Are you crying?
 
LUCAS SANTOS: Of happiness.
 
LUCAS SANTOS: At four years old, he had the first acute stroke.
 
About six months later, he had another one.
 
We said, "Well, we have to do something urgent."

That’s baby’s bottom… and you have a girl!

ALINE SANTOS:  When the doctor called and said, "You have one embryo that is fully matched to Caesar and doesn't have sickle cell anemia."
 
I felt like it was Christmas, and I just got the best gift.
Because even though he was doing fine, we know that anytime, something can happen to him.
 
And when we were 12 weeks pregnant, he had the third stroke.
 
And after the ultrasound, Maria Anita looked at him and said, "Caesar, you have to be strong, because we’re gonna have a baby.”

LUCAS SANTOS: You have to stand up. Up! Up! Up!

LUCAS SANTOS: I took him to the hospital the night of May 31st.
 
I brought him home on July 24th, and he was not walking.
 
Caesar spent about five months without walking by himself.

CAESAR: Up… Down… Up… I’m walking!

Right after the hospital, the first day I took him to the violin lesson, he was crying because was not able to play.

CAESAR: I want to walk for Miss Amelia, Papis.

LUCAS SANTOS: You did pretty OK, Caesar!
 
CAESAR: OK is not good. OK is bad.
 
LUCAS SANTOS:  No. OK is not bad. All is not good, this is OK.
 
CAESAR: No I don’t like “OK.”
 
Just “very good.”

AMELIA WEESNER: Thank you, Caesar.
 
CAESAR: Thank you, Miss Amelia.

LUCAS SANTOS:  The care for pre-transplant, the transplant itself, and the post-transplant, the whole thing is very expensive.
 
A case exactly like this one was done in Florida and cost half a million dollars.
 
You don't know what the insurance is going to pay.
 
But a life is on the line, so that's the scary part.

CAESAR: I am really happy! Because Baby Helen is gonna be my best friend.

LUCAS SANTOS: When this child is born, you'll take the umbilical cord as material for the transplant—the only way to avoid another incident that could kill him.
 
The transplant has a 95 percent chance of curing him of sickle-cell anemia.

LUCAS SANTOS: You are my hero, Mama.

ALINE SANTOS: Sometimes they say, "Oh did you genetically modify your baby?" No.
 
We did not decide to have this baby just for the transplant.
 
Because the transplant itself will take only the cord blood.
 
And this baby will come to our family and will be loved and will be part of us.
 
She already is part of us, even when we started this whole procedure.

CAESAR: Papa!
 
LUCAS SANTOS: I brought Baby Helen for you!

ALINE SANTOS: I don't have words to explain what it is like when you see your child in pain, and you feel like I could prevent it.

CAESAR: Baby Helen! I’m Caesar.

ALINE SANTOS: One day Caesar was really sad because he told me, "I can't walk."
 
And I said, "You know what? When the baby is born, the baby will give you a gift, and you won't be sick anymore. Never!”

CAESAR: It’s OK, Baby Helen.

ALINE SANTOS: She will give him his life back.

LUCAS SANTOS:  Every house has a light.
 
The light is not supposed to be gone.
 
If the light is gone, the life in the house is gone.
 
This light is power.
 
No matter how desperate you are, no matter how hellish this situation looks like,  we will make it.

I told him, “Caesar be strong, we will make it.”