Born with congenital heart defect, 12-year-old Maplewood dancer defies the medical odds
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. – Whether she's rehearsing or performing on stage, 12-year-old Finley Ashfield gives her all to dance.
"I just love the art of it. I love that I get to move my body to music," Finley said.
She's been dancing competitively for Larkin Dance Studio since she was 5. You can see her strength when you watch her dance, and being strong is something Finley learned from the start.
"Eighteen hours after she was born, she started showing some signs of distress," said Cailin Ashfield, Finley's mom.
MORE NEWS: Minnesota State High School League votes to add boys volleyball as sanctioned sport
Cailin learned her daughter was born without a left pulmonary artery, which should connect the left lung to the heart.
"She had three open-heart surgeries before she was 1," Cailin said.
Doctors at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital constructed a valve to function like an artery, but doctors warned that Finley would likely only have 60% lung capacity.
"She probably wouldn't be able to do marathons, extreme sports, things like that," Cailin said. "And in that moment it was perspective. We get to keep our baby, she will be healthy no matter what."
Dr. Guru Hiremath, the director of Cardiac Cath Lab at M Health Fairview Children's Masonic Hospital, often tests Finley's exercise capacity on a bike.
"Anyone with decreased blood flow to one lung has decreased exercise capacity because they have to breathe harder, they have to breathe faster," Hiremath said.
He says Finley is showing she has 115% of the lung capacity of a child her age. She has more exercise capacity than her peers.
"She's just remarkable, she has beaten all the odds," he said.
Finley tested those odds at a national dance contest in Las Vegas last summer, called "The Dance Awards," where she was competing against hundreds of dancers her age from across the country. She ended up winning Mini Best Dancer of the Year, proving she can not only compete against the best, but be the best.
"It's just made me more confident with myself," Finley said.
You would never know from seeing her dance that she's competing against her own lungs. But a scar left behind from her first surgeries as a newborn shows all that she's been through.
"My scar is called 'the zipline,'" Finley said.
Her zipline is something Finley doesn't hide from her friends and teammates. Instead, she celebrates it.
"If I didn't teach anybody about it, and if I wasn't open with it, nobody would actually know like the true me because this is like a big part of my life," Finley said.
She hopes by being open she can help others overcome obstacles.
"Even though I do have like a disability, nothing can stop me from going on to my dreams," she said.
Finley will still need one more big surgery to get an adult-sized valve implanted, since she will eventually outgrow the one she uses now.
Her next big dream is to someday dance on Broadway.
