One Heart, Half of a Right Foot

by Alyssa Dandrea

She was thrown backwards and within seconds her legs trapped beneath the riding lawnmower her mother was driving.  Four year old Bianca LaPointe had tripped on the third step leading into her home.  At the precise moment of the lawnmower’s approach, her feet had slid out from under her.

That hot spring afternoon Bianca had run around her yard imagining herself as the butterfly from Alice in Wonderland, her preschool’s play.  Now all she could do was scream.  The lawnmower refused to turn off.

“If it wasn’t for my mother’s ability to keep her head in the situation I am certain I would not be alive today,” said Bianca, now a college senior.

Flown in a Lifestar helicopter to Hartford Children’s Hospital, Bianca had her right foot partially amputated.  Post-surgery the entire inside of her foot was missing, from her second toe up to her ankle.  With three toes left, Bianca was told by doctors that her chances of walking normally again were slim.

“Because I was so young, I didn’t want to take it as an answer.  I didn’t listen,” said Bianca.  “At home I took my braces off when I wasn’t supposed to.  I forced myself to walk without crutches.”

During multiple surgeries over a two year period, Bianca’s right leg was reconstructed at Boston Children’s Hospital.  Doctors replaced calf muscle with abdominal muscle, “rewired” tendons in Bianca’s foot, and inserted a screw to help stabilize her ankle.  Through an intensive physical therapy program, she slowly learned how to redistribute her weight.

“My family was a huge support to me throughout this ordeal, but throughout my life I think what motivated me the most was my desire to not be seen as someone with a disadvantage.”

As a young girl who participated in horseback riding, softball, basketball, and tennis, Bianca said, “[My injury] made me more apt at sports because I was more determined than the other kids.”

“I just did as much as I could, and I didn’t use my injury as an excuse.  Working a little harder just became apart of my life.”

But forced to compensate, Bianca admits her childhood accident makes her more prone to injury and medical complications.  In middle school, growth plate surgery in Bianca’s left leg halted its development for a year allowing the right leg time to catch-up.  In college, Bianca’s tennis season is at a standstill due to tendentious in her right leg.  “I am concerned for this season because I have already missed two matches, and my injury is one that can re-occur if it is not fully healed when I return.”

On a normal day, strangers would never guess her struggle.  Until recently, her roommates did not know either.  “People can’t tell unless they see it or I tell them.  My most common responses are “Did it hurt?” “Do you remember it?” and probably the most common “Can I see it?”