SHAKER, HEIGHTS, Ohio (WJW) — It all started with what seemed like a routine stomach ache.
“I could barely stand up straight. Like when we had to run laps, that was a struggle,” Amani Smith told FOX 8 News.
“She was like, ‘Mommy, I’m gonna thug it out. My stomach is hurting,’ but that’s nothing out of the norm for her. Then she said her body started to hurt,” Amani’s mom, Nicole McDaniel, said.
Amani Smith, a vibrant Shaker Heights High School student, thought the pain was just from an intense day at cheerleading camp last month. But her parents, both Shaker Heights educators, said it turned out to be much more serious.
“They’re cutting her shirt, they’re bringing in blood, and she’s crying. I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, she has a stomach ache,'” McDaniel said.
A ruptured abdominal cyst led to sepsis, a life-threatening complication of an infection.
While doctors rushed to save her life, another complication during emergency surgery led to even more devastating news. A stroke, then the unthinkable.
McDaniel said, “An artery was unfortunately nicked during the first surgery, and there was no blood flow to her left leg for hours.”
Dad, Arthur McDaniel, said, “Because she got no blood flow to that left leg, the muscles died, which would release a poison into her bloodstream, which would make her fight even more with difficulty, or she was not going to make it.”
Amani’s left leg had to be amputated to the hip.
She was placed on life support for nearly a week at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, where she remains, recovering in the ICU, surrounded by the things she loves. Family and friend photos and stuffed animals are all reminders of the life she’s determined to get back to.
It was a matter of life or death. Now, the Shaker Heights community is rallying around the family as they navigate the emotional and financial impact of this medical emergency.
Fundraising efforts will soon be underway to help with mounting medical costs and to assist in Amani’s long-term rehabilitation and for a custom prosthetic leg.
Dad said, “You don’t realize how many people you touch in your everyday life, until you’re in a situation like this. Her cheer coaches set up a Meal Train for us, and all of the district has been reaching out to us.”
Amani even caught the attention of the Playhouse Square cast of Hamilton, who recently paid her a visit.
Amani said her goal is to dance and cheer again in her upcoming senior year, and to pursue her passion for theater and dance in college, determined to turn this tragedy into triumph.
“I just know I’m tough. And nothing can really bring me down….just push through,” Amani said.
Amani is expected to remain hospitalized for at least several more days. In addition to dancing again, she’s looking forward to eating her favorite hamburger from Swenson’s and getting her driver’s license.
Click here for more details about the Meal Train set up for Amani and her family.