Chasing Dreams One Dance at a Time – Abbey’s Amazing Journey

With support from Shriners Children’s Chicago, Abbey – a teen with cerebral palsy – has achieved remarkable milestones in dance, sports and advocacy.

Abbey has achieved remarkable milestones – from surgery and therapy, to dance, cheerleading, triathlons and advocacy – thanks to the medical care and unwavering support of her team at Shriners Children’s.

When Abbey was just 5 years old, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP), a condition which can affect muscle tone, movement and coordination. Abbey has spastic diplegia which primarily affects her leg muscles on one side, making her gait different than a typical teen. Her family learned about the multidisciplinary approach to treating CP available at Shriners Children’s Chicago, which specializes in pediatric orthopedics, cleft lip and cleft palate treatment, and spinal cord injury care and rehabilitation on the outskirts of Chicago. They scheduled an appointment and embarked on a journey of care that would unlock numerous opportunities for Abbey to accomplish remarkable things.

Since the types and severity of cerebral palsy can greatly vary, every child with CP can benefit from an individualized treatment plan. Abbey’s care team in Chicago is guided by the latest research combined with years of pediatric experience and input from the family. Typical care for CP may include orthopedic services, physical medicine and rehabilitation services, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, along with bracing and equipment reviews. Shriners Children’s offers all of this in one location for busy families.

Thanks to therapy, a series of colorful patterned leg braces and several surgeries, Abbey can pursue her own busy, active life. During appointments with Peter Smith, M.D., her pediatric orthopedic surgeon, Abbey likes to share her goals and dreams. Here’s one she mastered in 2021. After an orthopedic surgery procedure to correct her heel bone alignment, she fulfilled her goal to walk on the beach in sandals, remarkable for an individual with gait differences caused by CP. She not only sported the sandals, but she also walked that beach barefoot. “Dr. Smith has steadily guided us into a world we never imagined. His skills and knowledge are second to none,” said Vicki, Abbey’s mother.

Abbey has also participated in several Miss You Can Do It Pageants for girls with special needs. This year, she received the 2025 Miss Illinois Amazing Impact Award in part for her generous work as a Patient Ambassador for Shriner Children’s. This prestigious award honors individuals who have gone above and beyond to impact their communities through service work over the past year. Abbey spoke about volunteering as a Patient Ambassador for the motion analysis center, as recently shared on Fox32 Chicago news. She and her parents also graciously attend various fundraising and Shriners International fraternal events connected to the sharing of our amazing specialty pediatric care in orthopedic surgery, neurology and pediatric therapy services. She has traveled to high school Shrine game patient/players experiences in two states.

Abbey’s success, that she can dance and cheer on the sidelines, speaks to the quality of care she has received at Shriners Children’s Chicago with Dr. Smith for cerebral palsy.
Vicki, Chicago

For the past 12 years, Abbey has embraced adaptive dancing. Her experience helped her land a spot as a cheerleader for her middle school basketball team. At the time, it was a big leap for the preteen who knew the physical demands of the sport. The care and encouragement she received from Shriners Children’s Chicago staff and family support allowed her to get her first-ever sports physical and cheer on the sidelines all three years. Now a sophomore in high school, Abbey made the dance team and will continue throughout her junior year. Her enthusiasm for movement and dance is stronger than ever and may be a part of her future career.

“I love all things dance, and I look up to my dance teacher a lot,” said Abbey. “I want to be a dance teacher (one day).”

She is also picking up more swimming lessons to prepare for her third adaptive triathlon, the Tri My Best Triathlon in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The event welcomes children of all abilities and takes place annually in August.

Shriners Children's Chicago’s specialized cerebral palsy care has allowed Abbey to grow in comfort, pursue her interests and goals, and live her life to the highest potential. At nearly 17, Abbey has already reached an impressive number of milestones. With her unwavering drive and clear vision for the future, there's no doubt – the best is yet to come.

 

Gabriela Martinez, M.D., speaks about rehabilitation services for cerebral palsy and spasticity management.

View Transcript

Melanie: Welcome to Pediatric Specialty Care Spotlight with Shriners Hospitals for Children in Chicago. I'm Melanie Cole, and I invite you to listen as we discuss cerebral palsy and spasticity management. Joining me is Dr. Gabriela Martinez. She's a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Chicago. Dr. Martinez, it's a pleasure to have you join us today. Let's start for the listeners by telling them what a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician really is. What do you do?

Dr. Gabriela Martinez: So a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician also known as a physiatrist is a medical doctor who specializes in treating various neurologic and musculoskeletal disorders, that result in impairments with mobility and self-care. And so those range from conditions that affect the brain and spinal cord and musculoskeletal system. And they can be acquired from trauma, for instance, or congenital, meaning that the individual is born with the condition.

Melanie: So then tell us, this is just a little bit about yourself. Why is providing the best care for children with cerebral palsy so important to you?

Dr. Gabriela Martinez: So I actually have a younger sister with cerebral palsy. She was born prematurely at 24 weeks, which is the equivalent of six months. And this was back in 1988. And so she early on was diagnosed and was able fortunately to get hooked up with early intervention therapies and had a great team of doctors and therapists that helped her development and helped her blossom into what she's become. And this was over 30 years ago. Even though I didn't know it at the time because I was five years old. It's kind of circled back full circle for me. And I've realized how important all of those people that worked with her early on and what an impact they made in her life. So that's how it became important to me. She's been the motivation, the driving force for my career path.

Melanie: Isn't that lovely? I can hear the passion in your voice, and now we understand why you do what you do. So let's talk about cerebral palsy a little bit. What causes that spasticity? What's happening there?

Dr. Gabriela Martinez: So spasticity is the result of an injury to the brain or spinal cord above a certain level. And in cerebral palsy specifically that injury to the brain happens early on in life before the brain is fully developed. And that injury to the brain essentially results in an unbalanced hyperactive, so to speak, muscles and those muscles then are constantly contracting in an unchecked manner and the opposing muscles tend to be weak. So then this results in joints getting stuck in certain positions. And over time, this could lead to contractures, which is where the tendon shortens and can cause a series of difficulties. These contractures can lead to pain. There could be challenges with feeding and positioning. It could interfere with walking and the day-to-day things that children have to do.

Melanie: That's so interesting. And in your field, tell us how rehab inpatient and outpatient, can help these children to have a better quality of life. What are you doing that helps them?

Dr. Gabriela Martinez: Rehabilitation involves a large team of specialists, including physiatrist or physical medicine and rehab doctors, as well as skilled rehabilitation nurses, nurse practitioners. And then of course, our physical, occupational and speech therapists. We also work closely with recreational and music therapists, nutritionists, psychologists, social workers and care managers. So it's a very interdisciplinary team approach. And on the outpatient side, we here at Shriners have multidisciplinary clinics. One of them being our cerebral palsy clinic.

And so there, as a physiatrist, we try to manage their spasticity and we have a number of ways of doing that. We can use medications that kids can take by mouth. We also sometimes use Botox injections to help relax those overactive muscles. And then we work very closely with our orthopedic surgeon colleagues, because if that spasticity leads to contractures, they may need orthopedic surgery intervention.

So that's when they come in. On the inpatient setting, if a child has had a surgery by an orthopedic surgeon, then they oftentimes need a very intensive therapy course. So we have the ability to admit these kids after surgery to have intensive rehabilitation, which is a minimum of three hours of therapy a day. And we really get them up and moving and give them that burst of therapies to maximize their results after those surgeries.

Melanie: And tell us how have been your outcomes? What are you seeing with these children?

Dr. Gabriela Martinez: So we actually see really good outcomes with these kids that have had-- usually they have what we call single event multilevel surgeries. So say they've developed contractures at their hips, knees and ankles, then they can go in and have these multiple level interventions to improve their ability to walk and their mobility.

Children who have a milder cerebral palsy and are able to walk at baseline can have a decline in their mobility when contractures develop. And so after these surgeries, once they've had some healing, they do really great with intensive therapy. And then after doing several weeks of intensive therapy, we transition them to outpatient therapy so that they continue building on that strength.

Melanie: How can the families at home get involved in the rehabilitation for their children? Tell us how you work with the families so that they can reinforce what you're doing at Shriner's Hospital in Chicago.

Dr. Gabriela Martinez: So a big part of the psychiatrist's job is to educate the family and kind of explain to them what's going on with their child. And it's sometimes hard to understand spasticity. So I like to explain it just as I did earlier. It's that unchecked, hyperactive muscle working against weak muscles.

And so we try to be diligent with telling families how they can do rigorous stretching program at home, as well as wearing braces. So we often times provide braces to help children maintain good position in their ankles and legs for walking. And so family plays a big role in their rehabilitation. And I personally experienced that with my younger sister. It was really a whole family effort.

And then of course, our therapists are great with providing families with home exercise programs that they can keep up with so that they don't lose the gains that they've made after their therapies here. And really that's thing that's going to help long-term because, on an outpatient basis, they do weeks of therapy, perhaps two, three, four times a week. But what really is going to have the long-term effects is what's done at home in between that time.

Melanie: Such an important point that you made, Dr. Martinez. As we wrap up, tell us some of the ways Shriners Hospitals for Children in Chicago is caring for children who have spasticity. You mentioned a little bit about this multidisciplinary approach. And really tell listeners what you'd like them to know and why you recommend so highly Shriners Hospitals for Children in Chicago for cerebral palsy care.

Dr. Gabriela Martinez: So here at Shriners, we have a very comprehensive team approach. Everyone here works very closely together and we have the ability to remain in close communication. We have a very tight knit, very kind of homey feeling here. It's a relatively small setting hospital relative to other places. And that allows us to have the ability to be in communication with one another relatively easily.

So the physiatrists work closely in these multidisciplinary clinics with the orthopedic surgeons. And even if we're not scheduled to see a particular child, they can easily call us up to clinic for us to see someone on the spot.

We also have therapists available on the spot as well as well as our dietician, psychologists, social workers and care managers, and we also have orthotists and prosthetists available. So if we see a child for a new visit or a follow-up visit and they need bracing or they need new ones because they've outgrown their current ones, then we just call the orthotist and then they're able to cast them for new braces during the visit.

We also have a gait lab here that provides very extensive evaluation of a child's walking and gait mechanics. So that gives us a very thorough information about how we can best help the child, whether that be bracing or recommendations regarding surgical planning.

So here at Shriners, we really have a very close-knit comprehensive team. And I have, as I said earlier, personally seen the benefit of such a team with my sister and how all of that impacted her development. And she was born very prematurely back then in 1988, and with all the interventions she had, she developed the ability to walk.

And so this is a great place to bring your child. We really have many things to help them that are easily available on the spot and in one setting. So if families are coming from out of state, we can really have them see all of these specialists at once so that we limit their back and forth and travel times. It's really a great place. We really have the comprehensive team to provide that thorough care.

Melanie: Wow. Thank you so much, Dr. Martinez. I quite imagine that you are just wonderful with your patients. And so thank you so much for everything you're doing and for joining us today and telling us about what you're doing at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Chicago. And to make an appointment, you can call 773-385-KIDS or you can visit our website at shrinerschicago.org for more information and to get connected with one of our providers.

That concludes this episode of Pediatric Specialty Care Spotlight with Shriners Hospitals for Children in Chicago. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other Shriners Hospitals for Children Chicago podcasts.

I'm Melanie Cole.

Meet Abbey

Take a look at some of Abbey's milestones.

a child smiling next to a sign that reads "Shriners Children's Chicago Golf Outing"

Abbey represents Shriners Children's Chicago as a Patient Ambassador at a golf outing.

a teenager holding pom poms smiling and making a dramatic pose

Abbey smiles as she gets ready to cheer during a school game.

a child sitting on an examination table and smiling as a physician examines her foot

Abbey with Dr. Smith during an appointment.

a news reporter holding a microphone interviewing a teenager

Abbey speaks with Fox32 Chicago news about her experience volunteering as a Patient Ambassador for the motion analysis center.

a child smiling along the shore of a beach

Abbey walks along the beach in sandals.

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