The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘Miracle baby’ a Derby cheerleader and a CIAC Spirit of Sport honoree
DERBY — Bridget Wright calls herself the girl who wasn’t meant to be here.
“But now that I am,” she said, “it’s kind of insane how much I came forward. There could have been many more complications, but there wasn’t. Something kept me here.”
And this past week the 17-year-old Derby High senior was named Connecticut’s 2022 Michael H. Savage Spirit of Sport honoree. The award recognizes individuals who represent the core mission of education-based athletics and is given for a specific act or an activity of longer duration.
“It was a complete shock,” Wright said. “It means so much not only to me but my family. Coming from open-heart surgery to winning this award shows how much everything was worth it through the years. From doctors telling me I’m not allowed to do any sports and how I wouldn’t be able to keep up with doing anything, it’s a shock to me how much I’ve grown as an athlete and a person. It means more than the world to me.”
Wright was selected an All-State cheerleader last year and has been nominated again this year. She competes in outdoor track as a sprinter and jumper. She is an honor-roll student. She is part of student leadership. She volunteers at an animal shelter. She dreams of one day doing the same kind of work that helped keep her alive as a baby.
The girl who wasn’t meant to be here most certainly is here. She has the scar down her chest and one along her ribcage to prove it.
Bridget was born without a pulmonary artery and with two superior vena cava. There was a firstdegree heart block. There was an ASD hole (atrial septal defect) between atriums. There was a VSD hole (ventricular septal defect) between ventricles. She has pulmonary stenosis.
“When my mom got pregnant, she went into labor at four months,” Bridget said. “We’re not sure why. It’s not something genetic. My mom had nothing wrong with her heart. She was bed-ridden for her whole pregnancy. Not at four months, they were able to hold off, but I was a preemie.”
She also was a crier. Her mom and dad, Kristen and Kenneth, had trouble calming her. Bridget said they asked Kristen’s stepdad, Dr. A.K. Shah, to come over and he saw there was a problem with her heart.
“Soon enough I went into emergency surgery (performed by Dr. Gary S. Kopf) that took over eight hours at Yale New Haven,” Bridget said. “The doctors have no idea how I survived a year without a pulmonary artery and everything else that was going on. They said it’s a miracle I’m still alive.”
She wants to meet Dr. Kopf again to thank him.
Bridget’s heart skips a beat when she speaks of such matters. Then again, it always skips a beat. That’s one of the medical facts of her life. She goes through a medical checkup every year. There always has been a positive outcome.
“I guess my thing was to run and slam myself against the couch and the second I got home after surgery that’s what I did,” Bridget said. “My parents freaked out. As I got older it didn’t affect me as I thought, but looking at the scar, I got very insecure about it for a very long time.
“I never wore T-shirts, tank tops, nothing like that. I wore sweatshirts and shirts that covered my scar. After a while, I realized it’s part of me. From the time I was like 6 to 13, I didn’t say anything to anyone. No one really knew about my heart surgery until high school. I didn’t want anyone to know. I felt like they’d look at me and say, ‘That’s just weird’ or something. It was a secret for a very long time.”
And now it is her badge of honor.
Bridget saw her older sister Meghan doing gymnastics and she asked her mom to join. At first, she said, Mom balked.
“I wasn’t allowed to do sports, I couldn’t keep up,” Bridget said. “I kept begging her.”
Mom relented, and wouldn’t you know it? Bridget didn’t love gymnastics. After the family moved from Ansonia to Derby when Bridget was in the second grade, she started Pop Warner cheerleading. Meghan, now assistant cheerleading coach at Derby, was a cheerleader.
“We were a four-time national champion, the team to beat,” Bridget said. “That’s where my passion to cheer came from. I fell in love with the sport. I remember watching my sister cheer and tumble. I wanted to do it. She inspired me to do everything I can now. I thank her every day.”
Bridget is a flyer. She is a base. She is a spotter. She is a terrific tumbler. She does it all. Sitting nearby, athletic director Teg Cosgriff says, “And our star tailback in powder-puff football.”
“I give stiff-arms right and left,” Wright said.
Bridget remembers walking into the Derby gym as a freshman, seeing names on the All-State banner, and saying “I’m never going to make it. It’s not something that’s going to happen.” It did.
“Cheerleading is every part of me,” Wright said. “It’s where I feel most comfortable and myself. I feel like I can just be free. I can flip myself around and not have a thought in the world. If I have an issue in life, I immediately want to go out in the backyard and tumble. I’m so focused on what I’m doing I forget about everything else.
“Everyone deserves to have that feeling. I’m really thankful to have had multiple coaches in life (from Pop Warner up to Derby head coach Jessica Blackwell). I feel like cheer is my best friend. Cheer has always been there for me.”
Wright plans to cheer in college. She wants to attend Sacred Heart. She wants to become a pediatric cardiology nurse.
“That’s my goal in life,” Wright said. “To help the child, but also to help families who are going through the same things my family went through and show them this is where I am now. What you’re going through isn’t going to be there forever. Watching me compete, my mom always cries. She says it’s because she never thought I would be here. No one would have thought I’d be here.”
Occasionally, Bridget will have a panic attack. Unless you’ve had heart surgery, it’s difficult to fully understand the anxiety involved. Since doctors weren’t able to safely access it, she said, one hole still drips a bit. It hasn’t caused problems. When she is older, doctors have told her, she will need a pacemaker.
“If I ever have a child, that child will have heart issues, 100 percent,” Bridget said. “That is something I live with, knowing I could possibly put someone else in danger. But my surgery has shaped who I am and I’m OK. Knowing I’m OK is the best gift anyone could have.”
Near the end of our conversation, she said, “It’s a confusing question why I’m here and what I’m bound to do with my life.”
A miracle baby, she talks about being a medium. She spoke about crying in the fourth grade and when the teacher asked her why, she said she needed her mom and to go home. She said her grandmother had passed. Without being told, she said, it is what happened. Another time, Bridget said, she was at her aunt’s house, touched an object and saw how an uncle died. No one knew except her great-grandmother. A death certificate that had been in a safe was brought out, she said, and it was how Bridget described.
“I consider it a gift,” she said. “It comes and goes.”
Wright will be formally honored at the CIAC annual scholar-athlete banquet in May and will go forward as a nominee for the NFHS section and national Spirit of Sport awards.
“When it was announced (at a game), I hugged my dad for a couple minutes,” she said. “My dad is my No. 1 supporter and my best friend. We kind of look at each other as twins. He had heart surgery, too, (for reasons unrelated to Bridget). I actually remember being in an incubator at a year old. I was holding his pinky. He said, ‘Stay strong. I love you.’ That was my first memory of him. Ever since, he has been here for me. Whatever he’s doing, he’ll drop it if I have an issue. He’s the best father in the world.
“That picture of me hugging him is my favorite by far.”