Modesto 4-year-old takes loss of limb in stride

Peeking out shyly from her dad’s arms, a mischievous smile lights up 4-year-old Amanda Moeller’s face and she wriggles free, launching away for a step-swing run down the hallway.

Sister Haylee Rae Moeller, 3, races to catch up, but Amanda is faster, even with a prosthetic leg, than her hale and hearty sister. Parents Toby and Jennifer Moeller just smile. Spunk is a good thing.

“Lots of kids with heart (surgeries), they want to wrap them in a blanket, keep them protected. She has no restrictions. We don’t want restrictions on her. We want her to be independent,” Jennifer Moeller said. They hope she’ll stand up to any bullies, later.

“She needs to say, ‘I’m good. Take me or leave me, but this is how I am,’” Moeller said.

It took determination to not coddle their infant daughter as she struggled to turn over after losing her leg. “Tough love,” her mom says, but today she believes it was worth it.

“She’s just excelled this year,” Moeller said of Amanda, who’s attending Head Start with Haylee. Amanda also attends a weekly readiness class provided by the Stanislaus County Office of Education, helping her catch up after having come through eight surgeries.

In August, she’ll start kindergarten at Hughes Elementary School in east Modesto, ready to catch up and keep up despite a very tough start.

Beyond a ‘miracle baby’

That Amanda even exists was the first miracle. Doctors told a young Jennifer Moeller she would never be able to get pregnant.

When she did, prenatal testing showed that Amanda would have heart problems. Born weighing just 5 pounds, she had some hearing loss and came with a few other glitches corrected over the years.

“One by one, we knocked them off the list,” as her dad put it.

At 2 weeks old, Amanda had open heart surgery at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. A second surgery at three months had complications, causing her heart to stop for 50 minutes while the surgical team performed chest compressions and worked to save her. They repaired the artery and got her heart beating, but lack of circulation to her leg left it swollen and discolored, Toby Moeller said.

Doped up on medication, Amanda’s mental status was hard to read, but they made the decision to lose the leg and to hope, Toby Moeller said. At 3 months old, their little girl got the stump she calls “Nemo.”

Now her second leg has a hinge that serves as a knee. Amanda is looking forward to a new leg, still on order, with toes so she can wear sandals. She ditched her walker for hands-free striding a year ago.

“They called her a miracle baby in the hospital, but to me she’s more than a miracle, she’s my inspiration,” said Jennifer Moeller, the bright red scar of her own open-heart surgery only 2 weeks old. A heart attack just after Christmas exposed an unrecognized, possibly hereditary heart condition.

“It’s been a rough month,” Toby Moeller said with a sigh.

That said, both parents focus on what has gone right.

“I wouldn’t change a thing,” Jennifer Moeller said, watching both girls trying to do headstands. “Even her losing her leg. It makes her who she is. She’s so strong. She loves to dance. She loves the water.”

Nemo and Winter

It might have been that independent streak, or the mischievous smile, that caught the eye of Kevin Carroll, vice president of national prosthetic provider Hanger Clinic, when he came to the Modesto branch to meet Amanda. Carroll was the prosthetic tail-maker for Winter, the dolphin in the movie “A Dolphin Tale.” Amanda’s delicate skin required the same gentle surfacing developed for Winter, who lost her tail at 3 months, too.

Carroll connected the family with the nonprofit Give Kids the World, sending the family on a five-day fairy-tale Florida vacation in December that included a visit with Winter, a spare suitcase filled with toys and no-wait tickets to Disney World.

Sitting at home in Modesto, the Moellers hug and release their ever-moving youngsters, admire the girls’ stuffed sea animals and count their blessings.

“Life is happening,” Jennifer Moeller said with a wave at the toy-strewn living room.

This story was originally published January 9, 2015 at 7:57 PM with the headline "Modesto 4-year-old takes loss of limb in stride."