In 2010, Joseph Owens was adopted from Kampala, Uganda, in East Africa. His dream got here true just lately when he was sworn in as an airman for a day at Dobbins Air Reserve Base.
The Youngsters’s Hospital of Atlanta reviews that Owens’ adoptive father, Dan, initially met him whereas touring to Uganda with a buddy who was doing a documentary.
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In response to 11Alive, Dan and his spouse, Shelly, determined to undertake Owens and his sister, Hannah, after they bonded.
Owens, nonetheless, suffered from recurrent, untreated ear infections whereas dwelling in Uganda. He was adopted on the age of three, virtually deaf from the intense situation that ruined his left eardrum.
Owens’ agony was so extreme that he was unable to interact in common childhood actions equivalent to swimming and driving rollercoasters.
Owens’ adoptive mother and father then sought remedy at Youngsters’s Healthcare of Atlanta after concluding that he had missed an excessive amount of of his life.
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In February 2017, he had a profitable operation to restore his eardrum, which allowed him to listen to usually once more, in response to Youngsters’s officers.
“Regardless of setbacks in life, Joseph is a tremendous younger man, lively, and he radiates kindness,” Youngsters’s officers acknowledged.
He now attends Kennesaw Mountain Excessive Faculty and likes swimming.
He additionally cares for his adoptive father, Dan Owens, who suffered a stroke in November 2023 and is now homebound.
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