Skip to content

Ridgefielder's childhood spine surgery inspires Eagle Scout project

The Hour
By Alyssa Seidman
June 23, 2021

RIDGEFIELD — The story behind Ben Rosenbaum’s Eagle Scout project begins 15 years ago.

At 14 months old, he hadn’t yet attempted to crawl, which alerted his parents that something might be wrong. An MRI scan at Tufts Medical Center in Boston revealed a thumb-sized pocket of fluid known as a syrinx cyst was compressing the nerves in young Ben’s spinal cord.

The Rosenbaums went to Boston Children’s Hospital to get a second opinion from Dr. Mark Proctor, who recommended Dr. Carl Heilman, who diagnosed Ben, perform the surgery.