Rare defect has been journey, but Braylon fights on

Megan Trindal tries to explain her son Braylon's battle with a rare birth disorder, and people say they understand, but she knows there's no way they can.

Braylon Word, almost 8 months old, is sedated and on a ventilator in Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver for low blood sugar and respiratory issues, said Trindal.

He suffers from a condition known as tracheosophageal fistula and esophageal atrisia, which caused him to be born with his esophagus separated from his stomach, a hole in his heart, and without an anus.

Braylon always smiles when he's awake, Trindal said. He's not fussy and likes to be held and talked to. She doesn't think he knows he doesn't drink from a bottle. This is just normal for him, she said.

Unlike most parents, they didn't get to hold their newborn baby, she said. For almost a month after birth, they saw him every weekend at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. Two hospital transfers later, they finally took him home April 1. They have been in and out of Pediatric Intensive Care Unit ever since, she said.