Even at the young age of five, Ryder Wells has endured more horrific situations than the average person ever will.
While traveling to spend Thanksgiving with relatives in 2015, a little boy from North Carolina defied all chances by escaping unharmed from a vicious assault carried out by two rottweilers.
When they attacked him, he was just 21 months old at the time. Each of the dogs weighed 100 pounds. He was left with a shattered arm, a punctured lung, and the loss of half of his face, in addition to having his teeth smashed.
His family didn’t believe he would make it, but this little warrior did, and he has since had to suffer almost 50 operations as a result of his injuries.
This precious young kid, who has survived such a heinous assault, now has to put up with harsh remarks from both children and adults. He is not being congratulated for his resilience in the face of such adversity.
His aide teacher said that when Ryder first began school, even the teachers and other students would gaze at him.
“When we go to the park, there’s a youngster who points and screams’monster’ at him before running away,” parent Brittany said, according to The Mirror newspaper. “When we go to the park, there’s a child who points and screams’monster’ at him.”
Someone yelled ‘ew’ at him when he was out shopping the other day. As a mom, I find it challenging, and it hurts my heart that after all that he has gone through, people aren’t always pleasant to him for something that he has no control over.
But since he is such a warrior, nothing can stop him from achieving his goals.
It is said that Ryder’s survival is a “miracle” since even the doctors did not anticipate that he would make it.
Now the mother, who is 31 years old and lives in Granite Falls, Washington, is worried about her kid entering school.
“To conceal his appearance, he always has on glasses and a hat, and at other times he will droop his head to the side. But I reassure him every day that he is beautiful, that being different is great, and that it’s okay to be different from other people.
“I simply try to comfort him as much as I can, but I’m terribly worried about when he goes to school,” she said. At any given moment, there are sure to be a few kids that aren’t exactly the sweetest.
Now, she’s using Ryder’s experience to speak out against bullying of those with visible differences and to encourage others to reevaluate their attitudes toward those who stand out. Specifically, she hopes people will think twice about how they treat those with facial differences.
