Thanks to five years of excellent care at Shriners Children’s Northern California, Emmy is the youngest member of the Sacramento Kings Dance Team, performing in front of thousands of roaring fans during Kings home games.
The Golden One Center is the stadium the Kings call home and is just 5 miles from Shriners Children’s Northern California, a place Emmy called home while receiving care. Emmy credits her current success to the two knee surgeries, hours of physical therapy and endless encouragement she received from Shriners Children’s staff. She said the team helped lead her away from pain toward performance on the hardwood court.
Discoid meniscus is a rare condition where the C-shaped pad of cartilage in the knee that acts as a shock absorber is instead oval or disc-shaped. In Emmy’s case, the meniscus was thicker than usual and not attached, so it did not stay in place.
Emmy cried often as a baby, which her parents, Jake and Traci, initially chalked up to fussiness. One day when changing her diaper, Jake heard her knees making a clicking sound. Then they both realized something was very different for Emmy that they had not noticed when her older brother Chad was a baby. This began their journey to get her the care she needed.
Emmy had her first knee surgery when she was 2, followed by additional surgeries at ages 4, 6 and 8. However, her knees still hurt. This was a difficult time period for Emmy. Surgeons and doctors said her knees looked healed and they struggled to find medical explanations for her pain. Ultimately, they determined that there was nothing else they could do, which was a devastating thing to hear for an active young girl.
Her unrelenting pain continued and her parents looked everywhere to find specialized treatment options for their daughter. Emmy had a fifth surgery when she was 10 years old. Sadly, again it didn’t make much of a difference.
By the time she was 12, the pain was getting unbearable. Emmy's doctors wrote her off and her self-confidence was waning. Emmy feared she would never be able to do the one thing she loved most in life ever again – dance. Her mom had enrolled her in her first dance class when she was 4, and she danced through the pain her entire life. But there came a point when the pain was forcing her to step away from dance more and more as time progressed.
Her parents, however, didn’t believe the doctors and were not ready to let their daughter give up her hopes and dreams. They decided to speak with one more surgeon, who immediately referred Emmy to Shriners Children’s Northern California.
“My mom had heard of Shriners Children’s, but she thought they were only for kids who didn’t have insurance, and it’s not, it’s for any kid who needs their help,” said Emmy. “And, they have some of the best surgeons in the world.”
I wouldn’t be dancing right now without Shriners Children’s, physically or emotionally.
Emmy said her first visit with sports medicine orthopedic surgeon Brian Haus, M.D., was a relief.
“Dr. Haus spent hours reviewing my charts. He didn’t take my disease lightly. He said, ‘I don’t see anything wrong, but you are in pain, so I want to do exploratory surgery,’” Emmy said.
That surgery was supposed to take 30 minutes, but Dr. Haus discovered the previous surgeries had left Emmy with virtually no meniscus. He left the operating room to go talk to Traci and Jake in the waiting area, and recommended corrective surgery on the right knee while Emmy was already under anesthesia. Emmy’s parents agreed and she was in the operating room for another four hours.
Emmy spent a week as an inpatient at Shriners Children’s while on the road to recovery.
“I was feeling really down,” Emmy said. “But then I started working with the physical therapists who made it really fun. They made a really painful experience a really happy one, somehow. And seeing other kids recovering alongside me and watching them get better really helped,” Emmy said. “Not only was my knee getting better, but so was my soul. It was so motivating.”
After a year of ongoing physical therapy to recover from surgery on her right knee, Emmy had her seventh surgery to improve the same issue in her left knee. She spent another week as an inpatient and felt even more at home the second time around, thanks to a compassionate, multidisciplinary care team.
“It’s so weird to say that being at a hospital was a great experience, but it really was,” said Emmy. “Before, I felt like I wasn’t good enough, I was so insecure, but Shriners Children’s taught me that we are all unique, that you should embrace what you have, in a very good way.”
Emmy remembers how Shriners Children’s staff would constantly encourage and support her chasing her dreams of dancing again. Emmy recovered from her two surgeries, graduated high school and is now a professional NBA dancer for the Sacramento Kings.
“It feels surreal. I keep pinching myself. I never would have thought I’d be dancing for the NBA,” said Emmy. “The Sacramento Kings Dance Team is very welcoming, and my coach is so understanding of my situation. If the team does a move I can’t do, she creates a move that I can do, the team showcases what I have and embraces it.”
Emmy will eventually need meniscus transplant surgery, but remains focused on her career as a professional NBA dancer for now. She’s also thinking about how she can give back to Shriners Children’s and the children we serve.
“I wouldn’t be dancing right now without Shriners Children’s, physically or emotionally,” said Emmy. “I’m here because they kept telling me I could dance again. They gave me my life back. It really is such a magical place.”
Emmy visits patients at the hospital with the Sacramento Kings dance team to cheer them up!
Emmy interacts with a patient in the activity area of the hospital.
Emmy and the Sacramento Kings dance team pose for a photo in front of the hospital after their special visit with patients and families.
