After Unimaginable Heartbreak, Finding Her Feet Again

在一个砖墙的街区，俄亥俄州扬斯敦的街区舞蹈工作室里面，14岁的艾米莉卡鲁亚乃在她的芭蕾舞拖鞋上滚上了音乐。

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Gliding across the floor, she practices the dance moves she’s performed in “The Nutcracker” for the past six years. The eighth-grader spends much of her free time here in the Ballet Western Reserve studio.

与此同时，她腿上的微弱伤疤表示她来了多远。

A Christmas tragedy

2003年圣诞节前五天当一个car crash just a few miles away from home forever changed the Caguiats’ world.

Emily, then 1 ½, and her sister, Hannah, 5, were riding with their mom, Tani, who was on her way out to do Christmas shopping. As they slowed to a stop at a traffic light in Ypsilanti, a speeding car slammed into them.

The next thing Tani remembers is waking up to unimaginable heartbreak at the University of Michigan hospital.

The impact of the crash had killed Hannah. Eighteen-month-old Emily was in thepediatric intensive care unitatC.S. Mott Children’s Hospitalwith two fractured femurs. Tani herself was recovering from a blood clot in the base of her brain.

“这是一个愈合和记忆的漫长旅程，因为艾米丽的增长我们以不同的方式处理它，”塔尼说。

Overcoming injury

After being stabilized in the Mott PICU, Emily underwent surgery with a team led bypediatric orthopedicsurgeonClifford Craig, M.D.Craig worked to repair the 18-month-old’s tiny, fractured bones, inserting plates to help bridge them back together.

“It was a pretty major repair on such a little kid,” Tani says. “We were sure she’d heal but didn’t know how strong she’d be and worried about what kind of long-term damage she’d have.

“博士克雷格是如此重点，如此自信。我们可以告诉他关心，并将尽我所能让她做得好。我们真的需要那一刻的信仰。我们永远不会忘记它。“

The family spent Christmas at the hospital. Emily was able to go home the day after Christmas, but spent the next month in a full body cast from her arms down to her toes with just a small hole for her diaper.

“克服任何创伤伤害是困难的，而且她认为我们希望的康复，”克雷格说。“如果你今天拿了一个X射线，你可能无法告诉她有骨折。”

As Emily recovered, undergoing another surgery at Mott a year later to remove the plates, the family decided to start a new chapter to begin to get back to a new normal.

Tani’s husband, Jonathan Caguiat, was offered a position at Youngstown State University and the three of them moved to Ohio.

Finding dance

By the time Emily was 3, she was just as active as any preschooler — known for running everywhere, riding trikes and scooters.

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看到芭蕾西方储备在芭蕾西方储备表演后8岁时被吸引到了一个新的挑战“白雪公主”.” She asked her mom if she could try dancing.

Her first dance recital followed not too long after.

“She just fell in love with performing,” Tani remembers. “I thought she would be really nervous, but she loved it. She cried when it was over because she wanted to keep dancing.”

Emily has been dancing ever since then, trying ballet, modern and tap, with her “Nutcracker” roles over the years including a mouse, candy cane, angel and party child.

“When you’re dancing you can be someone else and go to a different place,” Emily says. “That’s what I love most about it.”

And every Christmas, Tani sends Dr. Craig a Christmas card with one of Emily’s recent dance pictures.

“谢谢你，当她是个孩子的时候修复了她的腿。今天，她是一个狂热的舞者！“塔尼写了。

“We just wanted to let him know she’s not only doing fine, but she’s thriving. We owe him a lot,” Tani says.

Craig says he looks forward to the cards.

“As a physician, it’s extremely rewarding to be able to see how well she’s doing,” he says. “It means a lot that they take the time to keep in touch and send me updates even 13 years later.”

Today, the family, which also includes son Max, 9, makes the most of every minute together, recently taking a two-week cross-country road trip to the West Coast.

And though the holiday anniversary of the accident can sometimes be painful, Tani says watching Emily on stage performing is also a reminder of resilience.

“我无法解释它，”她说看女儿。“我们在那次事故中丢失了这么多。但令人难以置信的是，看到艾米丽成长以发展这种激情。我们觉得很幸运，她能够做她喜欢的事。“