SPOKANE, Wash. — Five-year-old Jaslynn Gonzales walks confidently through the hallways of Shriners Hospital, her black Mary Jane shoes with glitter straps catching the light with each step. The determined soon-to-be kindergartener radiates joy as she shows off her favorite footwear.
Jaslynn “Jazzie” has celebrated many milestones in these hallways, including taking her first steps with specialists in the hospital’s Pediatric Orthotic and Prosthetic Services (POPS) department.
“When she was born, she had gone through a lot of trauma with surgeries,” said Clint Hastings, a licensed orthotist-prosthetist (LPO) at Shriners. “The hospital was a very scary place for her because she associated that to all of the trauma to help with some of these congenital abnormalities that she was dealing with.”…