Jackson Twp.’s Emmie Wanzer loves her new wheelchair swing provided by Wishes Can Happen Wanzer – Canton Repository

Denise Sautters CantonRep.com staff writer

"Faster! Faster!" Emerie Wanzer said as she swung on the brand new swing set that was made especially for her.

Being able to swing in the sunshine and feel the fresh air around her is a must for the 5-year-old Emmie, as she is known to family and friends.

She has often watched as her four brothers played soccer in the back yard, or rode off on their bikes to adventures she couldn't even imagine. When Emmie was 2, she laid down for a nap and when she awakened, her life was changed. After a lengthy stay at Akron Children's Hospital, Emmie was diagnosed withLongitudinally Extensive Transverse Myelitis, a condition that happens when the coverings that protect nerve cells in a certain area of your spinal cord are damaged. It left her paralyzed.

Thanks to Wishes Can Happen, a local organization that provides wishes to seriously ill children in Northeast Ohio, Emmie can now swing to her heart's content, as long as someone's there to push. With four brothers, her parents, grandparents and a nurse, that won't be difficult.

Emmie

Emmie's world started changing in 2014.

"It was the day after Easter," said her mom, Kari. "It was a normal day. We took her brotherto preschool, went shopping, got some lunch and came home. She laid down for a nap. When she woke up, she was having trouble moving her arms. Initially, I thought she slept on her arms wrong, that maybe she had a pinched nerve. I really didn't know what to think."

As the pain and paralyzation continued, she called her husband, Jeremy, a local dentist, to see what he thought.

"I told him I was really worried, that I didn't know what happened," she said, noting they decided to take her to Akron Children's. "I was worried about moving her because it could have been a neck injury so we called 911. When they came, they were really concerned because at that point she could only do worm like movements with her core. "

The doctors did not give the Wanzers a diagnosis at first, but ran a battery of tests, X-rays and CAT scans, but nothing showed up. While the family was there, Emmie started going into respiratory failure. They put her on a ventilator and took her to get a magnetic resonance imaging scan. After a few more tests, the Wanzers got the diagnosis.

Emmie is paralyzed from the neck down as a result of theLongitudinally Extensive Transverse Myelitis.Her brain and brain stem are not affected, but it has affected multiple areas of the spinal cord. She was in the hospital from April through August that year. Initially, she had no movement, but there is always a chance for more recovery.Emmie had to learn to eat and speak again following surgery to insert a tracheostomy tube to help her breathe. Her head movement is pretty complete now. The potential is there for her, but most recovery comes within the first two years, according to her mom.

Moving forward

Emmie is strong, and smart, said her nurse, Amy McKeown of Plain Township.

"Every day, she amazes me, to see the things she can do, the things she has overcome," McKeown said. "She doesn't let anything stop her from learning or doing anything she wants to do, and to see her on that swing and the smile on her face just melts my heart."

Emmie just finished her kindergarten year at Strausser Elementary School in Jackson Township. McKeown attends school with her to provide one-on-one care while she is there, but, she said, Emmy does everything else herself.

"The school and kids have been very good to her," said Wanzer, who admitted she was apprehensive at the idea of her daughter going to a regular school, but her worries were for naught. "The kids were slightly curious and wanted to know what this or that did, but they were very accepting and she made new friends. Emmie is really shy, but being with the other kids there, she has really come out of her shell. Her teacher made sure she was always included in whatever the class was doing. Even the physical education teacher made her feel included. When the kids were playing soccer, the teacher provided a ball Emmie could push around with her chair."

In addition to going to regular school, Emmie also joined a dance class, which has helped her come out of her shell. There is another girl in her dance class that has the same condition, so she knows she is not alone, said her mom. In addition to dancing, for which her dance team did a halftime show this past year for the Cleveland Cavaliers, she is also an artist and has done several pieces her mom and dad have hanging in an art gallery at their home.

She uses mouth adaptors to draw, write, and use a computer to play games and study. She also loves to read books using a special stand to hold the book. Her power chair, which resembles a souped up motorcycle she drives with her head, provides her the opportunity to come and go as she pleases.

It was so popular in school this past year, Wanzer said, that a couple of her peers asked for one for Christmas.

Wishes

"We were first approached by Make aWish, but Emmie was only 2 and although we talked about different things, she said she wanted a swing," said Wanzer, a pharmacist who stopped working to care for her daughter. "They ran into all kinds of issues and could not get a swing. Wishes Can Happen came in and asked about a wish. They said they could get a swing to accommodate her wheelchair, that they had done it before, and here it is."

Typically, said Mark Vandegrift, a volunteer for Wishes Can Happen, wishes are granted to seriously ill children primarily in Stark County, but are available to children throughout Northeastern Ohio. The organization tries to give the kids whatever they want. A lift for Emmie is in the works to make it easier for her to get to the swing. If the lift doesn't work, she might get a ramp.

"This has been a collaboration between a couple of local charitable organizations, Wishes Can Happen and Lowe's, which has their own charitable program," said Vandegrift. "It donated all of the time and material to do landscaping for the entire house."

Wishes is financed entirely through donor support. The nonprofit has no paid employees, only volunteers.

Lowe's provided landscaping, planting pink flowers around the patio because pink is Emmie's favorite color.

"Pink is my life," she said.

Reach Denise at 330-580-8321 or denise.sautters@cantonrep.com. On Twitter:@dsauttersREP

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