Gavin Mitstifer: Defying the Odds Every Day
June 5, 2025
Every child deserves the chance to grow, move, and live with hope for the future. But for children with Congenital Myasthenic Syndromes, like Gavin Mitstifer, 2025 Schreiber Ambassador, that path can be filled with medical challenges that test even the strongest of spirits. This June, as we observe Myasthenia Syndrome Awareness Month, the Schreiber Center for Pediatric Development is sharing Gavin’s remarkable journey.
A Diagnosis That Changed Everything
From the moment Gavin was born, the world told his parents to prepare for the worst. He was given days to live. Instead, Gavin gave the world a fight it wasn’t ready for.
Diagnosed with Congenital Myasthenic Syndromes (CMS) and Osteochondrodysplasia, Gavin’s body was up against immense odds. His muscles struggled to respond, his bones grew abnormally, and a spinal curve threatened the strength and movement he had fought so hard to gain. And yet, from the beginning, Gavin’s story has always been about pushing forward and never giving up hope.
Hope Begins at Home
In those early years, his parents, Greg and Christie, turned their entire basement into a makeshift therapy center. Every inch of space became a battleground for progress. They worked with him constantly on stretching and strengthening his muscles. They never let his current limitations define his potential. Every tear, every ache, every setback was met with stubborn hope, and every movement was a milestone well earned.
But when that curve in Gavin’s spine began cutting off the nerve signals to his legs, progress turned into regression. What he had gained was slipping away. “He was going backward,” Christie said. “And we knew if we didn’t intervene, we’d lose everything we had worked so hard for.”
At just three years old, Gavin underwent major spinal surgery to give his body a second chance. The goal was to relieve the pressure and restore nerve signals so that he could feel his legs and regain movement, and it worked. But then came the slow, painful road back.
Finding Strength at Schreiber
That road runs straight through the doors of the Schreiber Center for Pediatric Development, where Gavin now spends hours each week in physical therapy both in water and on land.
In the pool with his physical therapist, Liz, the water gives him freedom and his body moves with a kind of lightness he doesn’t often get to feel. In the gym, his physical therapists Lisa and Jordan help him push through the pain and fatigue, guiding him through stretches and strengthening exercises that build his core, challenge his balance, and restore what once felt lost.
It’s consistently hard work and often exhausting, but Gavin shows up. Every. Single. Time. “He never says no,” Greg said. “He’ll look at you sideways. He might roll his eyes. But he’ll try. He always tries.”
Gavin’s work in physical therapy at the Schreiber Center has brought back his strength and given him functional mobility of his arms and legs. But more than that, it’s given him and his family hope. Hope that one day, his legs will carry him into the world with the same fire that’s always lived in his spirit.
Restoring Hope
This June, during Congenital Myasthenic Syndromes Awareness Month, we share Gavin’s story not just because it’s a rare condition that deserves more understanding but because Gavin’s progress through it has been remarkable, and that deserves to be celebrated. Because he’s still here. Still fighting. Still growing. And because families like his, and places like Schreiber, are proof that even the steepest paths can be climbed, with the right team behind you.
Because kids like Gavin don’t just survive. They redefine what’s possible.
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