Shriners Children's Patient Emmy Becomes a Professional NBA Dancer

Emmy:

My name is Emmy, and I'm a patient at Shriners Children's Hospital. Because of what they've done for me, I am now dancing professionally in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings.

I came to Shriners Children's Hospital in the eighth grade. I was diagnosed at age of two with discoid meniscus disease. Basically, my meniscus was too big for my knee, and I needed to cut it down and just secure it, and Shriners Children's Hospital did that for me.

I've danced my whole life since I was four years old. Shriners really gave me that purpose again. Now I can dance and be pain-free at the same time. They literally fixed me. Before Shriners, they told me I wasn't going to be able to dance, or I shouldn't dance, and now I'm living my best life and dancing professionally, which I never thought I'd be able to do right now.

Really, the physical therapy team at Shriners helped me. They really pushed me. Just every single time I went to physical therapy, it was like mental therapy for me because they're so happy, and they just really uplift you, and motivate you to keep on going and pushing through.

There's no hospital like Shriners. They really care for every single patient there and their families, and they want you to have the best time there. My favorite thing at Shriners Children's Hospital I would say is just the staff caring about every single patient there. Not a single patient goes unnoticed. I feel like they really just care and want the best for the patients. Trying to make your time there the best that it can be, even though it's at a hospital, but it truly is such a magical place. It's like the Disneyland of hospitals.

I just want to thank everyone. They gave me my life back. Now I'm doing so much more than I ever thought I could do, and it's all thanks to Shriners Children's Hospital. Thank you, Shriners.