Lauren Dabrowski was born with a physical disability, and has undergone seven significant surgeries, with more to come. But it has not stopped her from becoming an elite defender about to embark on her rookie professional season.
Lauren Dabrowski was born with a physical disability, and has undergone seven significant surgeries, with more to come. But it has not stopped her from becoming an elite defender about to embark on her rookie professional season.
When Lauren Dabrowski turned professional this year, it was the culmination of a long journey, one that involved seven surgeries, sitting out half seasons to recover, and countless hours of added training to improve areas coaches critiqued. It also involved an uncertain future, where she knows her career will end with yet another significant surgery.
Dabrowski, 22, was born with congenital short femur, her left femur being 5 cm (2 inches) shorter than her right. Her parents noticed an issue when Dabrowski began walking, always on her tippy toes on her left leg, with her right foot flat on the floor. At age five, Dabrowski's parents took their daughter to SickKids hospital in Toronto, and soon she was having her first surgery.
"Growing up, my childhood was a lot different than other kids," Dabrowski said, reflecting on her journey.
First came three leg lengthening surgeries. Each time, doctors would break Dabrowski's femur, insert screws, and attach a fixator to the outside of her leg. Each night for three months following the surgery, her parents would turn the fixator to slowly lengthen her leg as the bone regrew. But as her left leg healed, her right leg continued to naturally grow meaning the difference between her legs was unable to catch up; the first two surgeries were a failure.
When Dabrowski started playing hockey, she'd have a surgery immediately following hockey season, beg the local coach to save a spot on the roster for her the following season, and after the three months of lengthening, and another three months of healing utilizing a wheelchair or on crutches, Dabrowski would return to the ice halfway through each season. Dabrowski, however, was not deterred. In fact, her love of hockey was always the light at the end of the tunnel.
"I just wanted to be another kid, I just wanted to do the things other kids would do," she said. "I'd be running around at recess on my crutches, I didn't want it to hinder me, especially in hockey."
After two failed surgeries to begin her treatment, Dabrowski's family decided to wait until her growing slowed to give the treatment a better chance. On her third surgery, Dabrowski gained 3cm, almost an inch and a half back on her left leg.
Following her final lengthening surgery however, the rod left inserted in Dabrowski's leg caused a new issue; it became infected and she acquired a bone eating disease. Her final surgery at age 12 was to remove the rod to stop the infection. It was an emergency surgery to save her leg, which was ultimately successful.
Still, the difference in her legs, which had been closed to 1.5cm, or just over half an inch, caused her stride on ice to look different, and eventually, as she began trying out for higher level teams, it led Dabrowski to get cut from her first team, the Barrie Jr. Sharks.
"My skating was one of my weaknesses growing up because of my left leg," Dabrowski explained. "I'd skate with a limp and I got cut from a few teams because of that, but I had a lot of other abilities that were overlooked. Once I got cut from my first team, they said it was because of my skating, I knew that was what I had to work on, so I trained really hard to work on my skating and I improved it greatly, which I think helped me to get here I am now."
Where Dabrowski is now is set to begin her first professional season with SDE in Sweden. She also uses a riser in her left skate to even out her stride, an insert developed by a team equipment manager while in University. Last year, Dabrowski was named a First Team All-Canadian playing for St. FX in USports, scoring 34 points in 28 games from the blueline. She'd transferred to St. FX after playing a season of NCAA hockey with Lindenwood. After graduating, Dabrowski and her agent were in talks with SDE and other Swedish teams, but before she could sign, the offensive defender received a contract offer from the PHF's Metropolitan Riveters where she signed. She was a sought after defender globally, which for Dabrowski felt a world away from where she began.
"It's a pretty long adventure, I had to overcome a lot of adversity," she said. "Obviously I made it to where I am now, so it didn't hold me back...When life gets tough you get tougher. This has been something I’ve had to remember throughout my childhood."
The dream of playing professional hockey has existed for Dabrowski since playing pond hockey with her family and Saturday night's of watching the Toronto Maple Leafs play on television.
"It was my dream to play professional hockey, to finally have that come to realization was a dream come true," Dabrowski said of signing with Metropolitan. "I was super excited, ready to prove myself in that league."
Even this step in her journey came with a new bump. Only weeks after signing her contract, the PHF was acquired by the Mark Walter Group, and the league was shuttered, with only certain assets left to be used in the new PWHL, and young players like Dabrowski looking for answers.
"Next thing you know we got our contracts voided. I was devastated. It was my dream to play in a professional hockey league like that, with Olympians, to learn from them, and just prove myself."
The same night she learned her contract had been voided, Dabrowski reached back out to SDE, who immediately responded saying they had two available spots on defence, and they'd love if she took one.
While the past is behind her, the future holds equal uncertainty for Lauren Dabrowski, which is why she's taking every opportunity she can to play the game she loves.
"Because I went through so much as a kid, I had to push myself... I'd not only have to overcome, but be better than those who didn't have a disability," she said. "It made me look at this opportunity to play professional hockey as very once in a lifetime. I'm very grateful to be playing."
As for the future, it's likely to involve more surgeries. Congenital short femur can cause a number of functional and structural issues in other parts of the body, including long term damage to an individual's knees and hips. In her final season with St. FX, Dabrowski was suffering pain in her left leg and hip, and following more appointments, doctors diagnosed Dabrowski with hip dysplasia, and found she had no ACL in her left knee, and two torn meniscus. When this diagnosis came down, Dabrowski was told she'd require a major surgery known as a pelvic osteotomy involving a year recovery, and the potential she may never be able to play hockey again. It wasn't an option she wanted to take, forfeiting a year of hockey, but as she'd soon learn, it wasn't an option she could take either. After follow-up scans, doctors determined Dabrowski was ineligible for that surgery due to too much arthritis in her hip. For now, Dabrowski will continue to play, dealing with the constant pain, until she can eventually have a hip replacement, the only way to alleviate her symptoms.
"What a rollercoaster of emotions I was feeling and going through as one minute I’m told that I may never play hockey again to the next where I’m told I can continue playing, but it will probably not help my hip and you have to wait until the pain becomes unbearable," she explained. "With this news going into my senior year I stayed at school and trained so I could have the best senior year."
She took care of her body, trained even harder at St. FX, and the result was being named assistant captain, earning First Team All-Canadian honours, leading USports in points by a defender, and landing not one, but two professional hockey contracts upon graduation. Beyond this season, Dabrowski hopes to earn an opportunity in the PWHL, but for now, the past is the past and the future is the future. Dabrowski knows what was, and what is to come, but is focused solely on the present, on playing professional hockey in Sweden with SDE, and becoming the best pro she can, for as long as she can.
"All I've cared about my whole life is hockey," she said. "To achieve my dream of playing professional hockey, getting paid to play hockey is just remarkable. I've spent a lot of time trying to prove myself to others, but it has paid off."