[Gabby's Story]
Kate: Hi, my name is Kate.
Gabby: And my name is Gabby.
Kate: And Gabby has been a Shriners Children's Hospital patient since July 2022. So Gabby was diagnosed with scoliosis at eight years old, and we have been following her journey since then. She was braced for two and a half years. The only option for us left with the aggressive progression of her curve was to do surgery. So I did a lot of research because surgery was really not something that we were on board with because Gabby is an all-star cheerleader, and that is her biggest passion in her world. Tumbling and flexibility are everything to her, and spinal fusion just wouldn't give her that flexibility that she needed to keep up with the sport that she loved. But there's a wonderful thoracic specialist at Shriners Children's Hospital in Sacramento. His name is Dr. Roberto. He does this groundbreaking procedure called vertebral body tethering, known as VBT, that will give your daughter the same correction as a fusion, but will allow her to have that flexibility that she needed with a flexible cord to continue to do tumbling and cheerleading.
Because of Shriners Children's Hospital and all of the amazing staff, Gabby's doing what she loves and she's excelling more than ever. She has more confidence because she's not dealing with body image issues from the scoliosis. She's not dealing with pain every day, and she's able to just push forward in the sport she loves.
Gabby: Thank you, Shriners.
Kate: Thank you, Shriners.
[Shriners Children's Northern California logo]
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