roberto miranda remembers it as a regular spring day in may 2021. his daughter olivia remembers it more specifically as mother’s day, just before setting out for dinner with her laval family.
she was 12, an avid soccer player, and was doing stretches her dad had recommended to ease the back pain she’d recently told him about.
“i looked at her bent over and saw a lump on one side near her shoulder blades,” miranda says. “i felt it, and it was hard like bone.”
she’d worn a backless dress at her confirmation the year before and there had been nothing. he thought, “how did we not notice this?” he tried not to show olivia his panic, but later at soccer practice, he pointed it out to a fellow parent who is a nurse.
“when she saw it, her face changed,” miranda says. “she said, ‘this is a scoliosis. this is a serious case’.”
scoliosis is a curvature of the spine. the national scoliosis foundation says it occurs in three to four children out of every 1,000. miranda compares it with pulling a string through something that is too short to accommodate it — it will shift and bend the material.
adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is often diagnosed when a child is between 10 and 13 years old, according to dr. neil saran, an orthopedic surgeon at the shriners children’s in montreal. there is a large genetic or hereditary component, with a high incidence in patients with siblings or mothers with scoliosis, though miranda says he does not know of any other cases in their family.
before and after x-rays of laval teen olivia miranda, who was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was 12. photo courtesy of roberto miranda.
courtesy of roberto miranda