Amaya's Story: Why She Trusted Nemours Children's For Personalized Care

Nemours Children's Health System

| 12/1/2019

When 13-year old Amaya was first diagnosed with scoliosis during a routine sports physical at school, it was no surprise to her mother, Kenyatta, who also has scoliosis. However, unlike her mother, who has a mild form of scoliosis, Amaya developed painful complications during a rapid growth period. When the c-shaped curve in her spine became significantly worse it began to impact Amaya’s entire life.

When the scoliosis continued to worsen, Amaya found that she couldn’t stand for long periods without suffering discomfort.

“It was scary, and at that point we knew something had to be done about it,” said Kenyatta. “It went from her just being self-conscious, to experiencing pain, to ‘Ok mom, I want to have something done about this’.”

The family decided to seek care from a spine specialist at Orlando-based Nemours Children’s Hospital. Dr. Alec Stall, an orthopedic surgeon at Nemours, met with the family and helped them determine the best option for Amaya’s care.

“We had our first visit to Nemours and we met Dr. Stall. From the very first encounter, it was amazing,” said Kenyatta. “He came in and started talking to Amaya and building a rapport with her – and really with all of us – but especially Amaya. It was scary, but right away, he started making us feel like family.”

“What I love is that he broke it all down – he explained what was going on, what the options were,” said Kenyatta. “Once we decided that we were going to go ahead and do the surgery, we reached out to him to let him know. And Amaya said she was only going to do the surgery if Dr. Stall was going to be her surgeon.”

In March, Dr. Stall successfully performed surgery on Amaya to treat her scoliosis.
“When we arrived on the day of the surgery, they gave us an app for our phone that we could go on so that they could touch base with us throughout the process,” said Kenyatta. “Every 30 minutes we were getting texts that Amaya was doing great, the surgery is still going on. There was always an update.”

After being discharged from Nemours, she continued healing at home, eventually increasing her activities. Today, Amaya is continuing to recover and is confident she will soon be able to once again do all the things she loves.

“Life after the surgery is great. I look forward to doing track again, running and acting again,” said Amaya. “I would highly recommend anyone who is thinking about going to Nemours and having the surgery, to just do it. I just love their staff and I love Nemours.”

“Dr. Stall kept saying I’m going to take care of her – and he did just that,” said Kenyatta. “He was absolutely amazing.”

Setting the Record Straight About Scoliosis
Nemours Children’s Health System has one of the nation’s most respected pediatric orthopedic programs and is a national leader in the non-operative management of scoliosis. One of our specialties is treating congenital scoliosis, which occurs when something goes wrong with the way some of the vertebrae developed while a baby was in the womb. If your child requires surgery due to severe scoliosis, you can take comfort in knowing our pediatric orthopedic spine surgeons have decades of experience in managing scoliosis in children.

Fixing life’s curves.
Nemours is a national leader in scoliosis management and treatment. The pediatric orthopedic surgeons in the Scoliosis Clinic provide patient- and family-centered expertise built on decades of experience to help your patients with: