Every day is joy

Pete Petro’s relentless positive attitude is one of the first things people notice about him. Whether on campus at Samford University or in his Vestavia Hills home, Petro has a reason to smile because he knows he’s defied the odds.

At 5 years old, Petro was unable to ride a bike despite repeated attempts. After seeing a few different doctors, one gave the diagnosis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

“I knew exactly what they were talking about, and it was devastating,” said his mother, Kathy Petro, who had already seen a friend’s son go through the same diagnosis.

Duchenne is a muscle-wasting disease. Doctors expected Petro to be in a wheelchair at age 10 and said he was unlikely to reach his 21st birthday. Despite the expectations, Petro is now 21 and a full-time accounting and German student. He began using a wheelchair at age 19.

“Pete has just dumbfounded [doctors],” Kathy said.

Petro has a daily routine to help keep him healthy. He takes steroids to maintain his muscles, has a morning stretching routine and swims at the Lakeshore Foundation pool for therapy. However, the steroids stunt growth and weaken his bones, and two broken femurs during his freshman year of college convinced Petro to begin using the wheelchair. It keeps him safe and allows him to go places without worrying about fatigue.

“Now I’m just trying to maintain what I have. I don’t want to walk, probably, anymore because that could hurt my bones again,” Petro said. “I’m just keeping up the hope that [researchers] are working on a lot of things to help even more.”

Kathy said her son has an excellent team of doctors, but it’s far more than medical care that has helped Petro maintain his health this long.

“As a parent it was the most horrible thing in the world that you couldn’t imagine, to get a death sentence for your child … but through the years I’ve seen how the worst-case scenario has never played out. Pete is very positive, he’s very focused,” Kathy said. “You just move from a state of extreme sorrow, to I guess fear, to acceptance and then joy, really, because every day I get to be with him is joy. I think a lot of people don’t have that.”

While a student at Vestavia Hills High School, Petro worked with student government to do a fundraiser for muscular dystrophy research, ultimately raising about $9,000. He has also spoken on the illness in classes at Samford and has participated in a “lock-up” fundraiser for the cause.

The hardest part for Petro is accepting that he cannot do many things independently, including getting out of bed each morning. He said he doesn’t like relying on other people, but he tries not to dwell on things that can’t be changed and feels fortunate it was his body affected and not his mind. 

Because Petro lives with Kathy and his father, Paul, to receive that assistance, he has developed a close relationship with his parents.

“It’s the three of us at home, and we have a great little unit. We work well together,” Kathy said. “We depend on each other a lot; we love each other a lot.”

Petro is inspired by the book No Arms, No Legs, No Problem, written by Bob Lujano of the Lakeshore Foundation and Tara Schiro. He wants to become a public accountant, working in taxes or auditing, and eventually be a professor. In everything, he wants to “live up to whatever the plan is” for his life.

“He’s focused forward, he has his life to live and he’s living it,” Kathy said. “I’ve learned more from him than I think from anybody … I’m not the same person I was when he was 4.”