Her daughter, whom she and her husband Erik named Arianna, weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces when she was born at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River.

“There were no problems and I delivered at nine months and when she was born, she did all those amazing newborn things that newborns do,” Patricia remembers.

But when Arianna was not quite four months old, Patricia and Erik noticed that their infant daughter barely used her right hand and sometimes had an odd muscle tremor in her eye.

Concerned, they brought her to her pediatrician in Swansea, who suggested she might have cerebral palsy and recommended she go to Boston Children’s Hospital for an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to enable doctors to get a look inside her brain.

Doctors at Boston Children’s identified a blood clot on the left side of Arianna’s brain that had burst, causing weakness on her right side. She also had had a small bleed on the left side of her brain that did not cause symptoms. The doctors concluded that Arianna had suffered a stroke in utero during the last month of Patricia’s pregnancy.

Perinatal strokes are rare — approximately 1 in 1,100 live births, according to the National Institutes of Health. They seldom lead to other strokes after birth.

“When the doctors told us that Arianna survived the stroke, we were speechless because we never knew unborn babies could have strokes,” Patricia said. “We felt helpless because we weren’t sure what the future was going to look like for her.”

Over the next several months, Arianna, who also was diagnosed with cerebral palsy related to the stroke, was not meeting important developmental milestones for crawling, standing, holding things or getting ready to walk.

Patricia and Erik looked for local treatment options closer to home than Boston or Providence, and when Arianna was 14 months old, they brought her to Southcoast Health Pediatric Rehabilitation in Dartmouth.

There she would begin physical and occupational therapy that would change her life.

From the beginning it was clear that Arianna was bright. She was fortunate in that the stroke she had suffered did not affect her vision, and later she would require only minor speech therapy to help her pronunciation. Early detection was key to Arianna’s recovery, Patricia says.

“When we first went to Southcoast, the question we had was will she ever be able to walk independently? Will she be able to use both her hands together? They came up with a plan especially for Arianna. They would set up goals for her that were realistic. They would work so hard for her to meet those goals that were appropriate for her age.”

Today, Arianna is 10 and has occupational and physical therapy twice a week at the new Southcoast Pediatric Rehabilitation facility in New Bedford. She also goes once a week to Thrive Medical Fitness in Swansea and exercises at home.

On a typical treatment day at Southcoast Health Pediatric Rehabilitation, she works with a team of therapists, including physical therapists Karen Medeiros and Becca Cameron, and occupational therapist Clarissa Dume. As Clarissa works with Arianna on an exercise that requires use of both hands, Arianna reminds her when she has successfully completed an exercise and Clarissa hands her a little reward.

“I got my loot,” Arianna says, beaming. “I can pick up 15 pounds.”

As for the team of therapists devoted to her care throughout the years, Arianna says simply, “They’re all my besties.”

Today, Arianna is a bright, talkative, friendly child who stands, walks and with her sister volunteers at the Little Patch of Heaven sanctuary in Fairhaven, where she likes to walk ponies and care for the animals.

She has had two major surgeries, one on her spine and one to restructure her ankles and right femur. And she will have another to straighten her right leg and allow her greater mobility. She will also have Botox® injections to prevent muscles from cramping.

Arianna knows she will need some kind of therapy throughout her life. When she was younger and had to wear braces on her legs, she would dream of a day “when she could wear pretty shoes,” Patricia says.

Thanks to the capable and caring therapy from the team at Southcoast Rehabilitation, however, Arianna can look forward to a full and happy life.

“I’m beyond thankful,” Patricia says. “Because Arianna has been coming here since she was a baby, (the therapy team members) are like a second family. It feels like even when they’re at home, they are thinking about the kids.”

“I always wondered whether she would walk someday,” Patricia says. “Now she can walk with pretty shoes.”

For more information on Southcoast Health Pediatric Rehabilitation services, visit Pediatric Rehabilitation | Southcoast Health.