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PELHAM, NEW HAMPSHIRE – February 13th of this past year is a day that Gabrielle (Gabby) Minuti will never forget. A freshman at the time, it was a day she helped the Pelham High School gymnastics team capture the program’s first-ever state championship, defeating four-time champs Pinkerton Academy.

It was also the day she knew the physical and mental pain she was in was too unbearable for another practice or meet.

Since the fourth grade, Minuti has suffered from back scoliosis. It was discovered after she had fallen and broken a rib. From that point until the seventh grade, the pain was minimal, but as her body started to grow the pain kept mounting.

Then in February of 2020 during quarantine, due to inactivity and slouching at her desk, the pain threshold reached its breaking point. Months of physical therapy wasn’t the answer. Neither was a back brace, which she had to wear from June of 2020 until this past February 18-hours-a-day, taking it off only when she competed in gymnastics.

Despite all that, the freshman showed tremendous courage and strength to continue to compete. She finished fourth on the unparallel bars, scoring an 8.5 at the NHIAA State Championship Meet. She also tied for 17th on the balance beam with an 8.15, all while in dire pain. Those performances, as well as many others including teammate Abby Druding in the all-around competition, allowed the Pythons to celebrate with the championship.

“Right before the start of the season, we got the news of the (severity) of her scoliosis, and Gabby was a little defeated,” said coach Nicole Rozzi. “She was under the impression that she would have to quit gymnastics all together. She didn’t know when she was going to have surgery. Everything was all up in the air.”

Luckily, the team managed to push it off all season. Gabby didn’t just compete, she delivered in the clutch.

“She was phenomenal,” Rozzi said. “She placed on bars at the state meet which was huge because as a team it’s our weakest event. On beam she was fantastic and she also competed on the floor exercise. All of those things were very hard for her with her scoliosis. She was in a lot of pain, but she managed to muster her way through and put up her best performance.”

Minuti, 15, who practices four days a week with her Club Xcel team, knew something had to be done in order to take the excruciating pain away.

“We went to lots of doctors and they all said that I needed surgery,” said Gabby. “At that time, my mom didn’t know about Tethering surgery, she only knew about the fusion.”

According to mysciliosis.com, Vertebral Body Tethering is the first and only FDA approved system. Historically, if bracing doesn’t work, the only other option is spinal fusion, which involves implanting metal rods along either side of your spine to straighten your curve. Rather than metal rods, The Tether uses a strong, flexible cord to straighten out the spine, using your own growth process.

The Tether system is different from the other surgical treatments for scoliosis because the spine is still able to bend and flex, rather than being fixed in place with metal rods. With Tether, it is important to be treated while you are still growing so the spine can correct itself over time. After surgery, the spine may continue to straighten even more as you grow.

Once Gabby’s parents Sean and Yvette found out more about this surgery, they had find a doctor who would perform it, and a hospital, as Boston Children’s only performs the fusion. The surgery was performed on June 1, at Mass General, but there were complications.

“There was a good amount of scarring around her lungs and they didn’t know the timing of the scarring,” said Gabby’s mother.  “It could have been from some sickness, it could have been from her rib injury, no one knew. That added a couple of hours to the surgery.”

Despite some detours, she came through the six-hour surgery with flying colors, followed by three months of rehabilitation.

“By September, I could start doing handstands,” Gabby said. “I was back after two months but just doing conditioning and stretching. I wasn’t allow to do any bending or twisting.”

Doing those limited things on the mat was so much better than what she had to endure just a few months earlier.

“It was hard to see her land on a tumbling pass and immediately grab her back and have to lay on the ground for a few minutes, especially knowing that there’s nothing you can do is going to make it better,” said Rozzi.  “You knew that it hurt but you also knew that it wasn’t going to get worse. We couldn’t make it any better, but it wasn’t going to make it worse. It was just her physical development that was working against her.”

Beyond the physical pain, the coach commends her gymnast for her mental toughness throughout it all.

Minuti has been back at the gyms since September. She spent the first 6-8 weeks conditioning and stretching and now has lightly practicing, mostly on the bars and the beam. She plans to help the Pythons compete again this winter season.

“I like the bars the most but it’s been the hardest to get the feel back with it, because it takes a lot of core strength to do that,” Gabby said. “When I first started going back to it, my core would hurt a lot because there’s incisions. They hit a couple of muscles and nerves. That was really painful.”

“The beam is probably the easiest, but it’s just the mental part of it,” she added. “I know I can do (the routine) and it won’t hurt anymore, but it’s just the mental part of doing it again.”

Her mother is relived to see her daughter is no longer in that degree of pain.

“She will grow a few more inches so the rod will straighten out even more,” said mom.  “It will avoid problems with fusion down the road. She’ll never have a straight back but as long as her pain goes away and can avoid fusion (that would be good).”

As for the future, Gabby is keeping her options open. She plans on competing with PHS gymnastics for the next two-plus years, but doesn’t anticipate competing in the collegiate ranks.

“I don’t think my body can handle it,” Gabby said. “It’s just so tough mentally and physically. Most gymnasts usually stop after high school because it’s just too much for them. When I was little, I always wanted to do gymnastics in college, but as I have grown, I’ve realized that I don’t want to do it.”

But for today, she is pain free, for the most part.

“I feel better and confident,” she said. “Now it only hurts on a couple of things like backsprings on the beam instead of hurting every single day.”