A 6-Year-Old Beat Cancer and Paralysis — Now He's Walking and Fighting for More

A Diagnosis No Parent Expects

When Matias was just 7½ months old, his parents, Rachel Osborn and Jason Kling, began noticing symptoms they couldn't explain. They weren't dramatic, obvious warning signs. The symptoms were ones they "really didn't know what they were" — "kind of loosely connected," Rachel recalled. Determined to find answers, the family kept pushing, bringing Matias to his pediatrician eight times over five weeks. Still, the answers didn't come easily.

Matias was eventually diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare type of cancer that develops from immature nerve cells — and a tumor was pressing directly against his spinal cord. The tumor, the size of a baseball, was growing in his abdomen at the time of diagnosis, pressing on his spine and causing him to become paralyzed. He received emergency surgery to remove part of the tumor, and then went through two rounds of chemotherapy to shrink what remained.

Waking Up Paralyzed

Even after surgery and chemotherapy, the hardest moment was still ahead. Seemingly overnight, Matias faced another devastating challenge: "Matias went to bed with full use of his legs and when he woke up the next time he was paralyzed from the waist down," Rachel said. The family had already endured so much — and now they had no way of knowing how much movement, if any, their son would ever regain.

Although the tumor was removed, Matias' family still didn't know how much movement he would regain. His parents focused on what they could do next — they started physical therapy as soon as he was medically cleared. Rachel's mindset was urgent and unwavering. "We knew that there was a really narrow window of time to start physical therapy," she said. "Literally the day that he was cleared we started physical therapy."

Finding a World-Class Team — 45 Minutes Away

That search for rehabilitation eventually led the family to Kennedy Krieger Institute — a path they discovered through another family who had gone through a similar experience. The proximity was almost hard to believe. "We came to learn there was a world-renowned spinal cord injury center 45 minutes away from where we live," Rachel told CBS.

Physical therapist Rachel Mertins has worked with Matias since he was about 1½ years old, watching him grow from a toddler into a determined 6-year-old. During therapy sessions, Matias works on movements that may seem small but represent major milestones for him — practicing stepping, balance, and body control. He now has an "incomplete" spinal cord injury, meaning he has regained function in his thighs, quads, and calves, though he has not yet recovered function in his feet, ankles, and bowel/bladder, and doesn't have sensation in his legs. His therapist describes his spirit as nothing short of infectious. "He's positive and he is upbeat, and he makes jokes, and he interacts with adults and the kids and everyone in this place and brings so much joy," Mertins said.

A Twin Brother and an Unstoppable Drive

His father also believes Matias' identical twin brother has played a meaningful role in his outlook — Jason said having a twin without the same mobility challenges gave Matias someone he genuinely wanted to emulate. That quiet, daily motivation of watching his brother move freely through the world has become a powerful force in Matias' recovery.

His story is a reminder of what early intervention, parental advocacy, and specialized care can accomplish — even in the most daunting circumstances. Matias continues to receive outpatient physical therapy two to three times a week at Kennedy Krieger's International Center for Spinal Cord Injury location in Maple Lawn. Each session, each step, each milestone is hard-won. And if Matias has proven anything in his six years, it's that he has no plans to stop fighting for the next one.