Arianna Howard, who has spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy with a mild intellectual disability, has never been able to stand. Within 24 hours after surgery underwent at Yale-New Haven Hospital to straighten her legs she stood for the first time in her life with support from doctors and her best friend and guardian Taylor Bargnesi.

Bargnesi said Howard's goals that she's working on in physical therapy are to learn how to stand, pivot, and transfer herself, such as from her wheelchair to her bed, and give her more independence. "Even when she was having a tough go in the hospital and they would stand her up...she was smiling," Bargnesi said.