Shriners Children's in Woodbury marks 100 years of helping kids
WOODBURY, Minn. — A Twin Cities medical practice is celebrating a century of changing and improving children's lives. And it needs your help to keep that mission going strong.
Shriners Children's in Woodbury just hosted a telethon in honor of its 100th anniversary. The facility treats kids with orthopedic needs, burn and spinal injuries, and so much more regardless of a family's ability to pay or insurance.
And it's not just kids from Minnesota getting treatment, but across the world.
Physical therapy sessions for Ahmed feel more like a workout. They can be grueling and tiresome. But for him, it's always worth it.
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"I've been gifted since I came here," Ahmed said. "As soon as I landed to the States, the next month I was at Shriners, and ever since then it's been an 11-year run and it's been going great."
It wasn't always great. Ahmed was born in Iraq with a limb deficiency. His right leg was significantly shorter than his left leg. The tibia and fibula bones below his right knee were crisscrossed in an "x" formation.
"A lot of pain, like constant pain," he said of his childhood. "I couldn't walk for long distances."
His family came to Minnesota when he was 6 years old, with Shriners Children's quickly becoming his second home. Sarah Scudder has been his physical therapist ever since.
When he came here, we just embraced him with where he was at and started with his medical care," said Scudder.
Surgeries, weekly therapy, and nearly as many prosthetic legs as his age would follow across the next decade. Ahmed has had 15 prosthetic legs since working with Shriners. He had only two prior.
A big turning point for him was a procedure in 2019 that aligned his tibia and fibula. The therapy that followed might have been his toughest to date.
"I had to relearn a lot of things. And when I first got my prosthetic, I couldn't run because I forgot how to run," he said.
After relearning how to run, he took another huge step. Ahmed joined the track team at Roseville High School as a sprinter.
"One-hundred [meter], 200 [meter], and I wanted to branch out into like jumping, so like long jump and triple jump," he said.
Shriners fitted him with a blade prosthetic, while Scudder — a former track athlete herself — adjusted his routine to help him meet his goals.
"We've always wanted to be able to reach out to international patients just like Ahmed, so it's just such an honor to be a part of his journey for all of these years," she said.
His immense progress, both physically and emotionally, created a confidence in proving people wrong. Ahmed is a shining example of Shriners' mission, one for which he is forever grateful.
"It's very important to me because it's like a second family that I got into, at an incredibly young age," he said.
Shriners Century of Care Telethon took place Wednesday. Although it wrapped up, donations continue to be accepted on online. If you'd like to donate, click here.
The money raised ensures kids like Ahmed get the orthopedic care they need regardless of their families financial circumstances.