GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A West Michigan family is especially thankful after spending many years celebrating the holidays at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

Eight-year-old Levi Berens has spent his entire life receiving treatment and has seen a remarkable recovery.       

His mother Emily Berens and father Randy Berens had feared the worst when they received a diagnosis before he was born.

“Levi is a walking miracle,” said Emily Berens. “We were given a 50% chance of him to survive after birth then we had a follow up appointment a week later and was given a less than 40% chance that he would survive.”

The number of procedures and conditions he has overcome would be hard for anyone to keep track of.

“Levi has had 56 diagnoses in his medical history chart of his medical chart. He has had 40 procedures in his surgical chart,” Emily Berens said.

Levi has persevered through every challenge that has come his way.

“He was born with a diaphragmatic hernia we discovered that at the 20-week ultrasound as well as he had clubbed feet,” Emily Berens said.

Already a cancer survivor at age eight, Levi has been through more health challenges than many people we see in their entire lifetime.   

“Levi was roughly five when he was then diagnosed with testicle cancer and we are now two years in remission and we still follow-up with oncology every four months,” Emily Berens said.

His physical therapist Andrew Harrington has seen that progress since he was two years old.

“Especially at the beginning it was just getting him on his feet and working on his standing and walking because initially at the age of two years old he was mostly like scooting on his bottom to get around everywhere,” Harrington said.

Learning how to walk took dedication and physical therapy sessions made to seem like play.

“It truly is rewarding to see the progress for Levi and many of the other kids that we’re able to work with to see where they were and the challenges that they were facing and seeing what they’re able to do now is definitely inspiring,” Harrington said.

The family is beyond grateful for everything the staff has done over the years, giving up their holidays to help Levi.  

“We’re very thankful for everybody here at Helen DeVos,” Emily Berens said. “Constantly thankful that we are there as a family celebrating that we can all actually be together. We’ve spent several holidays apart from each other due to hospitalizations so it’s a big milestone when we can actually celebrate a holiday at home.”