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Introducing Oliver Cope, 2024 Celebrity Child!

Variety, the children’s charity of Buffalo & WNY is thrilled to introduce the Celebrity Child for The 62nd Annual Variety Kids Telethon… OLIVER COPE!

It is with great pleasure, we introduce Oliver Cope as the Celebrity Child for The 62nd Annual Variety Kids Telethon! Oliver was born on March 25th, 2016 and is seven years old.  He lives in Blasdell, N.Y. with his mother (Amanda), father (Eric) and ten year old sister, Frankie!  By just age 2, when many children are littered with bumps and bruises from exploring the world, Oliver had already experienced 31 broken bones. Born with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), Oliver’s bones are extremely brittle, which causes them to break and fracture easily. Read more below on his resilient spirit and inspiring journey at Oishei Children’s Hospital (OCH) and The Variety Tent #7 Robert Warner, MD Center for Developmental Pediatrics and Rehabilitation.  At Amanda’s 20-week ultrasound, results came back that her baby, Oliver, had a femur that was broken. From there, Amanda had specialist appointments every month until he was born to keep an eye on his development. Doctors were initially confused as to why just his femurs appeared bent and broken. And then they realized his tibias were too short. And then they found that his arms were also underdeveloped. Specialists said it could be either osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a rare genetic disorder that prevents the body from building strong bones, or dwarfism. Once Oliver was born, it was obvious he had OI. With 8 broken bones, he was in The Children’s Guild Foundation Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Oishei Children’s Hospital (OCH) for 6 weeks and had 6 more breaks in that time. With Oliver’s condition, he can break a bone by just moving around or being held. Amanda recalls a time when he was just sitting on the couch and moved the wrong way, resulting in a sudden break. Another time, Amanda sat him up and accidentally broke a bone. And yet another time, she was putting him down for bed, scooping underneath him and accidentally broke his collarbone and shoulder blade – it just happens no matter how careful they try to be. Amanda estimates that Oliver has had 11 surgeries so far. His first was at a month old for a feeding tube and then a port for his infusions he was getting every two months, which since then has had to be replaced as it stopped working properly. He has had rods placed in both left and right femurs, tibias and humeri, which were three separate surgeries. The rods in his legs have already been replaced as he grew out of them. In the foreseeable future, Oliver’s arm rods will need to be replaced, but that surgery is down the road for him and his family. Oliver’s condition also causes brittle teeth. He has had caps placed to help protect some of his teeth and 6 other teeth removed as they were worn down. His last set of surgeries were for a new feeding tube along with a colostomy bag. Because his hips tip into the point where they almost touch, Oliver suffers from chronic constipation and a slower digestive system. He is always bloated and backed up, which is somewhat alleviated by his colostomy bag. However, his stoma for the same issue has caused him problems recently. It has prolapsed and herniated, calling for another surgery only a week after being inserted. Once that settled down, it was causing him irritation as it was too close to his skin, resulting in a third surgery. Currently, Oliver participates in physical therapy through The Variety Tent #7 Robert Warner, MD Center for Developmental Pediatrics and Rehabilitation at OCH. Initially fearful of coming and participating in hands-on therapy in fear of breaking a bone, he has grown to trust his physicians and is starting to enjoy his time there. He loves the big walker, working with his therapist and seeing friends that he has made. He is extremely excited to get started with water therapy! Some fun facts about Oliver whose family affectionately calls “Ollie”, include his excitement for building Legos!  He is the #1 fan of Kraft Mac & Cheese and loves the color Red. Sonic, the Hedgehog and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a few of his favorite things. He is truly a ray of sunshine with a smile that will light up any room.   Variety is thrilled to have Oliver Cope and his loving family a part of The 62nd Annual Variety Kids Telethon taking place Saturday, March 9th from 6pm-11pm on WGRZ, Channel 2 AND on Sunday, March 10th from 10am-8pm on WBBZ, Channel 5 and streaming online.   We hope you will tune in and learn more about Oliver Cope! Please kindly consider making a donation to the Variety Kids Telethon, today!   

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