The Posada Family Steps Up to the Plate

June 25, 2007 -- Jorge Posada of the New York Yankees is usually known for his heroics on the baseball field. But when his son, Jorge Jr., was diagnosed with a congenital birth defect at 10 days old, he quickly became a hero off the field as well.

The all-star catcher and his wife, Laura, were shocked when they learned that their first-born was afflicted with a little-known condition called craniosynostosis, which "is a deformity of the bones in the skull [where] they fuse before the brain grows. If the bones are [fused] together, obviously the brain is growing abnormally [and] the skull is growing abnormally," said Posada.

The Posadas were devastated because they did not know anything was wrong with their child before he was born.

"You can't detect it inside the womb," Posada told ABC News Now at New York's Yankee Stadium. "[Craniosynostosis] was our shocking news when we first saw him for the first time."

Posada had already planned to start some type of philanthropic organization for kids before Jorge Junior arrived, and his son inspired him to create a foundation with a mission of raising awareness of the condition that changed their lives.

"We wanted to give back. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to do something with kids. As soon as Jorge was born with craniosynostosis, it was like a sign from heaven. You know, you've got to help out kids that have the same condition," Posada said.

Today, the Jorge Posada Foundation is run by Jorge and Laura and provides support to families who have children with craniosynostosis, many of whom have to endure long and dangerous surgeries to correct their skull. Jorge Posada Jr. is just 7 years old and has already had eight surgeries.

According to Laura, going through several major surgeries can drain a family's financial and emotional strength.

"A lot of these surgeries are covered by insurance because it's imperative that the kids have the surgeries or if not, they are going to have brain damage. But there are other areas in which the kids need help and some of these are emotional support, and that's where the foundation comes in," she said.

"We have a mentors program where the families can call us and we connect them to other families that have been through the same situation so that they can hear from another parent that everything's going to be all right, that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and that although it might seem like it's the end of the world that they are going to be all right."