BRADENTON, Fla. — As twilight set on Clint Hurdle’s first season as Colorado Rockies manager in 2002, he found himself searching for a sign, for answers to the questions that had begun Aug. 7 when his daughter, Madison Reilly, was born and something seemed amiss.
Why us? Why her? Why now?
For three weeks, Maddie lay in the neonatal intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital in Denver, and her mother, Karla, watched as doctors and nurses whirled around her first child and ran tests.
Maddie eventually was diagnosed with Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare and complex genetic disorder that can cause developmental and behavioral issues such as short stature, low muscle tone and an insatiable appetite that, if left unchecked, can lead to life-threatening obesity.