WATCH: Young ballerina doesn't let injury hold her back
A 7-year-old ballerina dances again after nearly losing her feet. (Credit: Carilion Clinic)
A 7-year-old ballerina in Virginia is making huge leaps of progress after nearly losing her feet in a freak accident, according to the Carilion Clinic in Roanoke.
After spending the past several months in the hospital, Aubrey Scaletta, 7, was able to do the unthinkable and dance in ‘The Nutcracker’ after nearly losing both her feet in a freak accident back in May, according to Carilion Clinic.
In a release, Carilion Clinic said Aubrey was on her way home from gymnastics with her dad and twin sister, Grayson, when the unimaginable happened.
Health officials said Scaletta was playing with a ratchet strap when a portion of the strap went out the window and wrapped around the drive shaft, where she was then almost pulled out the window, but instead, the strap severed her feet.
A 7-year-old ballerina dances again after nearly losing her feet. (Carilion Clinic)
Aubrey was airlifted to the pediatric level one trauma center at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where an orthopedic surgeon and his team acted swiftly.
"When I got the phone call about an hour after the accident, they thought they might have to transfer her out of town, and I said, ‘Hold on a minute. If her feet are salvageable, then her best chance is here with us tonight — not tomorrow, not in six hours, but right here, right now with us,’" Dr. Peter Apel said in the clinic release. "We had to operate quickly to re-establish blood flow and reattach her feet to her legs. If we would have waited even a few hours, the feet would have died and most certainly would have been amputated."
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7-year-old Aubrey Scaletta dances in The Nutcracker months after surgeons at Carilion Clinic reattach her feet. (Carilion Clinic)
Because of Dr. Apel and his team's swift thinking, they were able to save Aubrey’s feet.
The team performed complex emergency surgery to repair and reattach the bones, arteries, tendons, nerves, and skin, typically a process that would have taken a week of planning with the help of several doctors and surgical team members, according to officials.
"It feels like it was all a bad dream. Even now, it still doesn’t feel like it really happened," said Lauren Scaletta, Aubrey’s mom. "I remember right after she got out of the hospital, I was running an errand and I saw a little girl in a dance leotard with her mom, and it struck me that we might never be able to do things like that again. So just being here and watching her do the things she loves makes me constantly say, ‘She’s incredible.’"
A resilient 7-year-old in Virginia is making great leaps of progress after nearly losing her feet in a freak accident. (Carilion Clinic)
The weekend of Dec. 9, Aubrey was able to perform alongside Grayson in "The Nutcracker."
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Dr. Apel stated that Aubrey's recovery isn't over, but she's making great progress.
However, Aubrey’s parents don’t expect anything to slow her down, adding she always finds a way to achieve everything she sets her mind to.
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