The boy, Ethan Benoit, then not quite 1 year old, has a rare skeletal disorder that has affected nearly every one of his bodily functions. He has also suffered debilitating strokes and relies on machines to breathe and eat.

So when Ethan returned to the cramped mobile home the family of five rents, his parents, Shane and Sheree, were determined to shower him with love.

But they'd already purchased his tombstone.

Then a remarkable thing happened: Ethan lived.

He lived to see his first birthday. Then Christmas, beating the medical oddsmakers.

Now, thanks to surgery at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., Ethan may live to 17 -- or possibly well into his 30s.

How did this happen?

When Ethan survived into the new year, his parents reconsidered their Do Not Resuscitate order and began looking into surgery at duPont.

At the time, I thought: Good grief, the poor kid has been through enough. Why subject him to more pain when the prognosis was so grim?

But the Benoits know their son.

A foundation connected to the hospital agreed to pay for Ethan's treatment -- if only the Benoits could get the boy to Delaware.

That's where John Sherman comes in.

Last fall, he read about Ethan's illness and sent a small check to assist the family.

When he saw a follow-up article about Medicaid refusing to pay for an ambulance to take Ethan to Delaware, he sent a more sizable check. On a whim, he called to offer the family a lift.

Sherman's co-worker from the state Department of Correction purchased a harness to allow Ethan to travel on his back.

On June 8, Sherman headed north with Ethan and Shane Benoit -- the three musketeers. Sherman got the boy and his father settled in a Ronald McDonald House a few days before the surgery.

Three weeks later, he drove back to Delaware to bring Shane and Ethan home.

Dr. William MacKenzie, a pediatric orthopedist, had removed one of Ethan's vertebrae. His spine is currently stabilized by a device called a halo.

But, provided the backbone that remains fuses properly, MacKenzie told the Benoits, there is every chance that Ethan will survive until he's 17 or far beyond.

MacKenzie's nurse practitioner Colleen Dibro was more circumspect. She noted there are no guarantees with a disorder this severe. There are still questions about Ethan's quality of life.

"This is not a little guy who was up walking and talking," she said.

But to Sherman, and certainly to Shane and Sheree Benoit, what happened was nothing short of a miracle.

"I don't know of any other way to describe it," Sherman said.

He credits a network of "prayer chains" -- folks who learned about Ethan and prayed for him intensely during his time of greatest peril.

Shane Benoit believes his son is starting to use his eyes and hands more. "We'll know more when the halo is removed this fall," he said.

But one thing is sure: the kid's a fighter. Don't give up on him yet.