Spine disorder inspires Victor student to pursue nursing

The 17-year-old was born with spina bifida, a birth defect where the spine doesn’t develop properly. He has a tube draining excess cerebral brain fluid from his brain to his stomach.

David told the Ravalli Republic he is in the Healthcare Pathways program at school with the goal to help kids going through what he did.

“I want to give back to people like me,” David said.

The Victor Healthcare Pathways program, in its second year, operates as a partnership with Bitterroot Health and offers dual enrollment credit with the University of Montana. After two years of instruction and a six-week summer course, students can take the exam to become a certified nursing assistant (CNA).

David is in his second year of instruction and intends to participate in the summer classes to get certified.

There are 52 Pathways students across multiple school districts in the Bitterroot, with instructor and nurse Brittany Leatham-Olney teaching over Zoom.

Leatham-Olney said in an interview David is one of her favorite students, as he is a vocal participant in class. He’s a “funny little character,” she said, telling stories and engaging other students, but is also comfortable with adding his perspective as a patient.

“He’s been such a blessing to have in the class, because he does have that patient aspect,” she said.

On the flip side, she’s seen David understand concepts in class he’s applying to his life as a patient. She said when they discussed the cardiovascular system and blood pressure, he had a better understanding of what the numbers meant, because he was familiar. 

“It kind of clicked in his patient side, too,” she said.

The first two years are for learning the basics largely in the classroom, but in years three and four students can shadow and do internships that may involve interacting with patients.

The program helps students get ahead, but also helps address the nursing shortage in the Bitterroot Valley. Leatham-Olney said the hospital hired five people who went through the CNA training.

David said he better understands “doctor talk” now, and has used his new knowledge as a tool to advocate for himself in his care.

Advocating for himself in school settings is a skill David learned over time — and key to becoming more independent, which he says is important to him.

David’s mother, Jennifer Smith, said they learned how to advocate for her son in school by joining Partners in Policymaking to better understand special education law.

“Everything that I learned, David learned,” she said. “It’s very important to understand the laws, and the limitations with the laws, that he’s going to be dealing with for life.”

Jennifer’s intention was for David to be “armed with knowledge” and she said he’s risen to that challenge.

“David has taken something that would have dragged anybody else down, and he has taken it by the reins,” she said. “He knows everything that’s going on medically — he’s his best advocate.”

David talks with teachers in advance about the absences he’ll have for medical procedures, and will ask what he can do to make sure he doesn’t fall behind, he said. He often gets assignments or online work he can do ahead of time.

His condition impacts his daily life, he said, but from the outside you wouldn’t be able to tell.

His mother said he has done a lot over the years to conceal his pain — once going a year with painful bladder spasms — and came into her office when she was the counselor in Corvallis so other kids wouldn’t see him.

“I would be on the ground in a ball crying,” he said. “It felt like someone stabbing me, with someone burning me, from the inside out.”

David said he also had severe anxiety, especially when their family first moved from Washington, D.C. to Stevensville in 2014.

“I had thought everything was going to kill me,” he said. “I dealt with just kids not being nice and all that.”

But he found peace through therapeutic horseback riding — and after a few local places that had offered the service closed, David’s family decided to start their own nonprofit and provide services themselves.

Singing was another coping mechanism, with Jennifer saying they would serenade people in the hospital whenever he was there for longer than a day, largely classical or opera with a little Celine Dion sprinkled in as well.

David wants to help future patients with their medical anxiety.

“I could step in and go, ‘Hey, it’s OK. I’ve been through this. I mean, I’ve not had this exact surgery that you’re gonna have, but I understand what you’re coming from,’” he said.

As for what’s next, David is in the process of deciding where he wants to apply to go to college and is considering some in-state options, but is also looking at schools in Arizona, Washington and Nebraska.

He said he’s a little scared, but thinks he can do it.

“I feel like I’m getting really close to the goal I want of being more independent,” he said.