BY STEVE BRADLEY
WEBSTER, N.Y. – Those who have had the opportunity to watch the Webster Schroeder softball team play the past two seasons probably noticed the contributions of Ava West.
A sure-handed centerfielder with good speed, West could cover gap-to-gap on defense and ignite the Warriors’ offense as a second lead-off hitter batting in the No. 9 spot.
Steady, if not spectacular, West helped Schroeder to a 21-3 record, the Section V Class AA championship and a berth in the state quarterfinals as a senior.
“She was huge for us,” Schroeder coach Meaghan Keil said. “She worked hard. She’s a very quiet kid, very reserved, but she has a lot of respect from the kids. She’s funny and she’s a great teammate. She’s not going to be your vocal leader, but she leads by example every day. I can’t sing her praises enough.”
West was even named Schroeder’s “Warrior of the Week” for her contributions to the team’s title run.
“She does so much of the little stuff, which is one of the biggest reasons we are here,” Schroeder athletic director Shawn Strege said prior to the Warriors’ Far West Regional matchup against Clarence.
West ranked fourth on the team with a .355 batting average while racking up 22 hits, including seven doubles, scoring 15 runs and notching 10 RBI while compiling an OPS of .912.
The most amazing stat: She did it all with one ventricle.
Here is her story:
‘I literally did not know what to pray for’
Ronette West was eight months pregnant and headed for what she thought was a routine OB-GYN visit on June 30, 2006.
Her belly was large and measured to the size of 48 weeks and doctors ordered a special ultrasound to determine whether the baby had a virus or a heart condition. Ronette, packed up her two older children, Rachel and Anthony, into the back seat and got in her truck. Silent tears streamed down her cheek as she drove home.
“I literally did not know what to pray for,” Ronette said. “But at that point it was already in God’s hands.”
As fate would have it, her close friend Michele Parry pulled into her driveway as she arrived home and waited for the babysitter to arrive. Michele joined Ronette as she set off to meet her husband, John, at Highland Hospital.
The ultrasound indicated a heart issue and Ronette was sent directly to Strong Hospital, where she was going to be induced. It was also determined that the baby would need surgery to survive.
Ava arrives
Ava was born at 2:14 a.m. on July 2, measuring approximately 18 inches with a dry weight of about 7 and a half pounds. She was kept alive by machines, drugs and the fabulous care provided by the staff of Strong’s Cardiac Pediatric Intensive Care Unit as the surgeon, Dr. George Alfieris, returned from a West Coast vacation.
Ava was born with Ebstein’s Anomaly, a congenital heart condition, where her tricuspid valve was malformed and too low in her left ventricle. Her valve was too tiny to replace so doctors opted to do an oversew called the Starnes procedure, where they closed off the blood flow to that ventricle and redid the plumbing until she was old enough to undergo a surgery where a more permanent solution could be created.
Ava had a severe case of Ebstein’s, so she was very sick at birth and had an extremely low cardiac output. As a result, doctors chose to do the Starnes procedure.
The Wests were told that the surgery had an 80 percent survival rate, so Ava was baptized the next day. They were also continuing to heal from the loss of their son Angelo, who died at the age of four months in February 2005.
They continued to pray and attempted to stay positive as they waited for Dr. Alfieris to arrive.
“We are both the kind of people who try not to worry until someone tells us that we have a reason to worry,” Ronette said.
The surgery was successful and Ava stayed in the hospital for three and a half weeks. Ronette and John stayed in the Ronald McDonald House, which was located one floor above the Cardiac PICU inside of Strong. The Wests were so grateful for the way that they were treated at the Ronald McDonald House that John served asa volunteer there until the program was suspended when COVID hit in 2020.
Additional surgeries follow
Ava underwent a second surgery, called the Glenn procedure, in January 2007 at the age of six months.
During the Glenn procedure, a surgeon disconnects the superior vena cava from the heart and connects it to the pulmonary artery, allowing the blood from the upper part of the body to flow directly into the pulmonary artery which takes blood to the lungs.
Ava’s third surgery, known as the Fontan procedure, occurred in January of 2011 when she was 4½.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the Fontan procedure lets oxygen-poor blood from the lower part of the body go straight to the pulmonary artery (and then lungs) for oxygen instead of going through the heart first. This procedure usually follows a different operation (Glenn procedure) that sends oxygen-poor blood from the upper body to the pulmonary artery and lungs.
After the Fontan heart procedure, all oxygen-poor blood goes to and through the pulmonary artery to the lungs instead of going through the heart first. This blood flows in a passive way, or without a pumping ventricle to move it.
“The surgeries went as well as they could have along the way,” Ronette said. “Her oxygen saturation is a little higher than people that have this system that came before her.”
Ava does not remember anything about her first two surgeries, but does recall Rachel’s teammates on the Webster Junior Warriors coming to visit her in the hospital after the Fontan procedure.
“We just felt the love and all of this genuine kindness,” Ronette said. “A lot of it came from people we didn’t even know.”
Finding her way
Like many children, Ava wanted to follow in the path of her older siblings and play sports like soccer, lacrosse, baseball and hockey.
She tried soccer for a season, but it was apparent that intense cardiovascular activities were not going to work for Ava.
Her parents encouraged her to try cheerleading, gymnastics and softball. She started playing softball in fourth grade when she was 10 years old and was selected to the all-star team for Webster recreation. Ava went on to play travel softball with the Webster Extreme and Rochester Rattlers and went out for the junior varsity cheerleading squad in eighth grade before joining the indoor track and field team as a sophomore and participating in the shot put and weight throw as the Warriors won two Section V team titles her final three years of high school.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” Ronette said. “The doctors told us that she probably wouldn’t be able to play sports at this age but we just kept letting her go and I think that, because she was active, her heart stayed really healthy.”
Ava has regular doctor’s appointments to monitor her health. She receives an EKG every six months, has an ultrasound annually and takes a stress test every two years.
“I’m really grateful,” Ava said. “I am one of the healthier ones that they see.”
Doctors mentioned that she may need a heart transplant at some point, but that does not appear to be on the imminent.
“We’re not talking about the ‘T’ word,” doctors told Ronette the last time that she asked. “She’s doing great, we don’t need to start talking about that yet.”
‘I’ve done the most that I could’
One of the greatest compliments that Ava has received throughout the years is that her opponents, and even a few of her teammates, had no idea of everything she had been through.
“They don’t know,” Keil said. “When you watch her, she is a phenomenal athlete. She’s strong, she’s quick and she’s fast. You would have absolutely no idea unless somebody told you, which is amazing.”
The only times Ava seemed impacted were on a few extremely hot days when she would get light-headed.
“It didn’t happen often,” Ava said. “When it did I would just take a little break and get back to it.”
Ava’s quiet, business-like approach earned the respect of her teammates, many of whom she grew up playing with.
“I admire Ava so much, I look up to her a lot,” said Anna Reidl, who played left field for the Warriors and graduated with Ava. “We’ve been friends on and off the field since we were kids and she’s never let anything stop her. She’s always given it 100 percent, she never uses anything as an excuse, she always works harder than anyone else on the field and gives it her all every single time.”
“She’s a really gritty player,” said Biz Baglieri, Schroeder’s third-team all-state first baseman. “Whenever she is out there, you can always trust that she is going to catch the ball, whether it’s in the gap or whether it’s over her head.”
Ava concluded her career as a New York State Public High School Athletic Association, second-team all-league selection and Exceptional Senior All-Star. She also passed the Red Cross lifeguard certification test for beachfront and works at Ontario Beach Park as a lifeguard during the summers.
“I’ve done the most that I could,” said Ava, who was called up to the varsity for Schroeder’s 2022 postseason run to the state Class A title and helped the Warriors to a 36-9 record the past two seasons. “I just pushed myself until I really can’t do any more. I’ve always been like that.”
Later this month she will leave for Duquesne University to major in Nursing, hoping to become a caregiver like the ones who have treated her so well throughout her life.
Her parents are proud of all that she has accomplished and remain forever grateful for the miracles of modern medicine and those who practice it.
“She wouldn’t be here without it,” Ronette said. “Without Dr. Alfieris, without the technology, the know-how, her cardiologist, Dr. Cecelia Meagher, who has been on this entire journey with us, all of the nurses and the Ronald McDonald House. All of that made it survivable.”
I love you Ava West and very proud of you .