The Little Fighter Living Up to His Name

When most people hear the name “Rocky,” they think of a fighter. They picture strength, grit, and someone who refuses to stay down no matter how many times life knocks him to the mat. In that sense, Rocky Calvert is the perfect embodiment of his name — not because he chose to be a fighter, but because life demanded it of him from the very beginning.

Today, Rocky Calvert is fighting hard at Children’s of Alabama.Rocky is six years old. He is from Appalachian, Alabama. And despite his small size, his story carries the weight of a lifetime of battles that few adults could endure.

Rocky was born with vanishing gastroschisis, a rare and severe condition in which his intestines developed outside of his body. From the moment he entered the world, survival was uncertain. While most babies spend their first year learning to crawl and walk, Rocky spent his first year of life in the ICU. Hospital walls became his world. Machines breathed for him, nourished him, and kept careful watch over a body that had already endured more than it should have.