Emme Kersten loves to swim, play basketball and maybe most of all, baseball! Emme was born prematurely at 35 weeks with severe anemia, which is a condition that involves a lack of red blood cells responsible for transporting oxygen from the lungs to vital organs throughout the body. While Emme was able to recover, the lack of oxygen resulted in a condition known as cerebral palsy (CP). She’s also a patient at Gillette Children’s and has been working with Gillette’s medical team since she was 4 months old. This past November, Emme had Single Event Multilevel Surgery to correct hip dysplasia, and has been diligently working in her rehabilitation process to strengthen her body. Going forward she aspires to one day become a police officer and own a motorcycle.
“What I’d tell other people about Emme’s care team at Gillette, is it’s not just that they’re so talented. They are, but they didn’t just help Emme, they helped us as a family better support her at home,” Jessica says. “They shifted the conversation away from what she wouldn’t be able to do, to the reality that she would do many things, just some of them differently. Once we had that mindset, we were able to pave a way forward.”
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