It’s hard not to notice Callie’s hands, as she plays on the walkways and in the grass. Her right hand is encased in a splint, still not quite used to grasping objects. Her left bends awkwardly at the wrist, curved nearly 90 degrees. And yet, as fans walk by, as they notice the little blonde child, no one asks about her arms. They note the splashing water, the mother’s tolerance. They don’t mention her arms. People almost never do.
Callie, the first child of Scott and Sarah Atchison, has thrombocytopenia-absent radius (TAR), a rare genetic disorder that manifests itself primarily in low platelet counts and absence of radius bones. As Dr. Ellis Neufeld, associate chief of Hematology/Oncology at Children’s Hospital in Boston puts it, “It could be one of these one-in-a-million things.’’
In her first two months, Callie had 10 blood transfusions. In January, Callie had surgery on her right arm to move tissue from the outside of her wrist to the inside to straighten her hand. And it was Callie, too, who brought her father back to the United States, to compete for a bullpen spot on a team with a roster nearly settled.
Atchison, who pitched in the majors for the Mariners (2004-05) and Giants (2007), spent the past two seasons with the Hanshin Tigers. The Sox signed the 33-year-old righthanded reliever before he left for Japan, then continued to scout him while he pitched there, bringing him back to the organization on a one-year deal this offseason.
His daughter needs special care, regular therapy, and she needs to be closer than the 13 hours from her hospital in Dallas that she was in Japan. So the family has come back, with no assurances. It was not primarily a pitching decision to return to the United States. It was a Callie decision.
“We learned a lot more medical stuff than we ever thought we would learn with her,’’ said Atchison. “But she’s amazing. It’s crazy to watch her do things and figure out ways to do things that you’re just like, ‘That is not how I would do that,’ but it makes perfect sense for that being the best way for her to do it.
“It’s really neat to watch her. She’s a blessing in our lives.’’
Birth, then a bombshell
