'Wish' grants wish, but one miracle left

Teen skater visiting Games may miss idol by week

By Sarah A. Meisch

The Journal Gazette

Competitive skater Leah Smith, 14, practices at McMillen Park Indoor Ide Arena. Make-A-Wish is sending Smith to the Winter Olympics, where she hopes to see Michelle Kwan compete Cathie Rowand/The Journal Gazette

Perhaps the first miracle in 14-year-old Leah Smith's life was being diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome shortly after her birth. At the time, the condition usually was diagnosed only in an autopsy.

But doctors at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne detected that Leah's left ventricle was underdeveloped and sent her to Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis.

"We were told only some heroic surgery would save her life," her mother, Joan Smith, recalled.

When Leah was 11 days old, that surgery -- a heart transplant -- took place.

"At the time of the transplant, life expectancy was about 10 years," her mother said.

But Leah, a competitive figure skater and volunteer with numerous groups, has defied those odds.

"In our opinion, there is no limit on her life," Joan Smith said.

Partly to honor those accomplishments, the Make-A-Wish Foundation is sending Leah to the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, where she hopes to see her idol, American figure skater Michelle Kwan, compete.

Leah, a home-schooled ninth-grader, was devastated when Kwan didn't win a gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics, her mother said. The night Kwan lost, Leah, then 10, made a vow amid her tears of disappointment.

"She said Michelle Kwan is coming back, she's going to the next Olympics, she's going to win the gold she deserves, and I'm going to be there," Smith said.

So when Make-A-Wish approached Leah two years ago about granting a wish, she knew exactly what she wanted. But Make-A-Wish told her it wasn't possible.

"They said they don't do international travel since 9/11," Joan Smith said. "Leah said, 'I'll wait.' She's been waiting two years. Last summer they told her (again), 'No, we don't do international travel.' She began working on a new wish. Then they called back and said, 'Guess what? We're going to grant your wish.'"

The Smiths are one of 12 families chosen by Make-A-Wish International to go to the Winter Olympics.

But Leah will need another miracle if she's to watch Michelle Kwan compete.

Make-A-Wish is sponsoring her for the first week of the Winter Olympics, but Kwan doesn't compete until the second week. The Smiths have extended their trip by three days so that Leah can see ice dancing -- the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization is helping with the more than $500 cost for two tickets to that event -- but it doesn't mean she'll see Kwan.

"We need to figure out how to get her into the ladies freestyle event," Joan Smith said.

Leah has been interested in figure skating since she was a small child.

"When Leah was little, I put her in ballet," her mother said. "I thought, 'She needs to be doing something.'"

Young Leah did well at ballet, but it wasn't what she wanted to do. She yearned to figure skate. After three years of ballet classes, fate intervened.

"Her ballet instructor said she loved Leah and she was very graceful...but she didn't have the patience for ballet," Joan Smith said. "She said (Leah) needed to be moving constantly. She recommended figure skating."

Smith took then-8-year-old Leah to an open skate for home-schooled children.

"She put on a pair of skates and it was like she'd been skating her whole life," her mother said. "It wasn't long after that, that a coach approached us and said she wanted to coach Leah."

Since then, Leah has won gold medals at the Indiana State competition four times, in both freestyle skating and ice dancing.

She trains at Fort Wayne's McMillen Ice Arena four times a week for three hours and once a week in Indianapolis.

"I like the grace and beauty of the sport," Leah said. "It's not an easy sport to do. It takes a lot of patience."

But when she's skating, Leah feels free.

"It's really fun," she said. "It's why I'm still doing it."

What first captivated her about Kwan was a costume.

"When figure skating first caught my eye on TV, I saw the girl with the beautiful blue dress," Leah said. "I loved the blue dress and wanted one just like that. Since then, I've enjoyed her as a skater and the personality she shows on the ice."

Leah met Kwan once when she competed in Indiana.

"She's so wonderful," Leah said. "I'm hoping to be able to meet her again, hopefully before she competes so I can tell her I'm still supporting her and I'm still her fan -- I think this is her year to get gold at the Olympics."

Although Leah considers herself a normal teenager, her life includes some other details. She takes 11 medications three times a day, goes to Riley every eight to 10 weeks for blood work and a checkup to make sure her body isn't rejecting her heart and once a year has her heart catherized and a biopsy done.

"She does have a lowered immune system to prevent her body from rejecting her heart," her mother said.

But Leah sees her heart, given by the family of 6-month-old Jimmy from Texas, as a precious gift and volunteers to tell people about organ donation.

"It's important to get the message out about organ donor transplantation and how important it is to save other people's lives," Leah said. "You can be a hero in someone else's life by making the decision to donate."

"Her main volunteering is for the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization," Joan Smith said. "She speaks at high school health classes, elementary schools and adult civic groups...That takes up a lot of her time. She does something for IOPO every week."

Leah also volunteers for Make-A-Wish and has been a Children's Miracle Network Champion for Riley.

Her mother emphasized that having a wish granted doesn't mean Leah's health is failing.

"This isn't a negative thing," she said. "This is a positive, wonderful thing."

Gone are the days when only terminally ill children were nominated for wishes, she said. The Web site for Make-A-Wish says it grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.

"They also work with kids who aren't necessarily expected to live into adulthood," Joan Smith said. "Necessarily is an important word."

When Leah was 2 or 3, a family friend nominated her for a wish, but Leah's cardiologist wouldn't sign off on it.

"He thought it would be a negative thing," her mother said. "He didn't see her as someone who wasn't going to survive."

It's different now.

"It's not that any of us don't expect her to keep thriving," her mother said. "I heard her say once that if she didn't see the scars in the mirror and didn't have to take medications every day, she wouldn't believe someone who told her she'd had a heart transplant.

"If we didn't have the memories...it's an unreal thing."

smeisch@jg.net

Copyright © 2006 Knight Ridder.

This article posted February 25, 2006.