CLEVELAND — Jesse Martin, 27, is about to reunite with two people who changed his life.
"Hello! How are you guys?" Jesse said while greeting Dr. Raymond Liu and Emily Canitia, of University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital.
About 1 in 1,000 babies are born with a club foot, when an infant's foot is turned inward. Jesse was one of them. His legs were different lengths and his feet were at a five-size difference.
Playing sports was always his love, but it came with a cost.
"I always walked with a limp. I was always wearing a shoe lift and I was a devout soccer player and it was just immense pain," Jesse said.
After enduring more than a dozen surgeries, and spending years in and out of University Hospitals Rainbow Babies, he'd make a controversial decision: A partial leg amputation.
"I was around 16, 17 when I found amputees adaptive athletes online," he said.
It was the best choice for him but his orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Liu, said it wasn't the clear path for his team.
"That is not the book answer, right? If you're giving a lecture on Clubfoot, that is not something that's generally talked about," Liu said. "We're orthopedic surgeons. We're used to looking at radiographs and we're looking at radiographs that look good. But we're also ... we're physicians. We take care of patients and we really have to focus in on the patient as well."
Jesse's nurse practitioner Emily Canitia says he's been a huge advocate for himself.
"To me, he's always been the prime example of taking care of a patient as opposed to taking care of a disease or a limb or anything like that. He was so much more than just his leg," she said.
Today, Jesse is doing everything he wants to do.
"I'm an adaptive athlete, so I do para climbing, I do running and I really wanna get back into soccer," he told us.
Jesse says his gratitude for those who helped saved his life is immeasurable. But on Thursday, when he was reunited with Dr. Liu and Emily, he tried to say "thank you" as best he could.
"Thank you ... love you guys, seriously," Jesse said through hugs.
Now, he's dedicated to helping others live their best lives.
"I knew like in my heart of hearts for years ... years that I could live my life to the fullest if I got rid of something that wasn't serving me," Jesse said. "It saved my life."
And in the coolest full-circle moment, Jesse volunteers at the very hospital where, he says, his new life began. He's also studying to become a licensed architect.
