Margaret's mother first noticed the bump on her back when she was 5 months old. By the time Margaret was 2, her back was severely twisted in two places, with a 100-degree bend at the top of her spine and 60-degree torsion at the bottom.

Over the next eight years, she would endure 12 grueling surgeries to straighten her spine. Luckily, Margaret was in the capable hands of Dr. Oheneba Boachie-Adjei, a world-renowned orthopaedic spine surgeon. Her 13th and final surgery would be the most arduous, but would finally free her from her childhood in a brace.

"It was much harder this time," Margaret, now 11, says of her recovery. "I spent 10 days in the hospital, the longest time ever."

Margaret still has to visit Dr. Boachie for regular checkups every four months, but the time with him will lessen gradually to every six months and finally once a year.

"We're relieved," Patti, Margaret's mother, says months after the surgery. "Now we wonder what we'll do with all the time we would have spent at the hospital. Now she can get through the school year without taking time out and having a tutor. It's nice to know that she'll have a smooth school year."

The prospect of seeing Dr. Boachie less frequently saddens Margaret and Patti, too.

"Dr. Boachie and everyone at the hospital have been like a second family for us," Patti says. "When 9/11 happened, it was across the street from the hospital and Margaret was so worried. We had to call everyone at the hospital to make sure that everyone was OK. It hit really close to home."

Margaret is now in sixth grade. The first thing her friend Mary noticed after her surgery was that she'd gotten taller. The surgery stretched her spine an extra inch.

In June, Margaret will be able to play sports, but she's not interested in playing anything as strenuous as basketball or soccer just yet. She'll stick with bowling.

Margaret is still waiting for her new wardrobe. Since the final surgery she has lost a lot of weight, but she does have a couple pairs of jeans that she can wear, instead of sweatpants, to fit her small waist and long, thin legs. Her dad says she has legs like a giraffe.