HARFORD COUNTY, Md. — A center in Harford County is celebrating a milestone of five years in providing rehab services to children with a variety of medical needs.
Meet Joseph Hughes, also known as JoJo. He’s a three-year-old full of life and personality but is also dealing with cerebral palsy.
"So for Jo specifically, it affects fine motor skills as well as his just overall physical state,” said Lauren Hughes, JoJo’s mother.
JoJo has been going to Mt. Washington Pediatric Community Rehabilitation services for the past year. In just that short time, his mother says she's already seen changes.
"We've seen amazing improvements specifically with feeding himself, using utensils at meal time fine motor skills so they do a lot of picking things of and doing little crafts and that kind of thing,” said Hughes.
JoJo is one of the many children the rehab center helps, treating more than 400 patients a month. It's a one stop shop for physical, occupational, and speech therapies along with feeding and aquatic.
"We're able to see the children thrive, grow, be able to eat, feed walk, honestly just live their every day lives and live to the best they can,” said Jessica Maher, physical therapist at Mt. Washington Pediatric Community Rehabilitation Services.
Opened in 2018, the goal was to bring services to a community that would otherwise have to travel far.
"So we draw in patients from Pennsylvania, Delaware as well as some of the other counties around Maryland because there aren't services anywhere else like here,” said Dr. Scott Klein who is the CEO of Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital.
Now, five years later, the team of six is celebrating a milestone and is looking to continue helping children achieve things many may not have thought possible.
