- January 28, 2026
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While growing up with what doctors call an "atypical overgrowth syndrome," East County's Jasmine Ramirez was trying to do all the things that the other kids could do.
Despite a left leg that was expanding at an abnormal rate, Jasmine was OK when it came to swimming, or playing, or jumping on a trampoline.
But as hard as she tried, she had limits. Such as a trip to the amusement park.
Her condition was undeniably limiting a year ago when Jasmine took a trip to Busch Gardens in Tampa with her family.
Her father, Manuel Ramirez, watched in agony as Jasmine tried to be seated properly.
“Many times, we tried to ride rides where the buckle wouldn't fit, the safety bars would not close, and she would come down devastated and crying,” her father said. “Normally they say that I'm stronger (emotionally) than mom, but I don't think so. When she came down crying, I would cry, too.”
It would only get worse for Jasmine.
In the first week of December, Jasmine was confronted with an ominous decision. Her leg weighed 174 pounds on its own, and her overall health was failing.
Her parents urged her to have her left leg amputated in order to give her a new life.
“I didn't want to lose my leg because I was wondering, "How would I feel the ground?’” Jasmine said. “I wanted to keep it.”
Her father and mother, Verenice Sanmiguel, felt it was the only choice.
“We had spoken about it," her father said. "If one day it would be between your life and your leg, we will always choose your life. I said, ‘Well, we're here. We are at this point, and we’re going to choose your life.’”
Her left leg was amputated during a 16-hour surgery Dec. 11 at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.
The surgery was performed by Dr. Chris Snyder, who is the Johns Hopkins' director of the Pediatric Trauma program, Dr. Odion Binitie, an orthopedic oncologist at Moffitt Cancer Center, and S. Alex Rottgers, a pediatric plastic and craniofacial surgeon at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.
Rottgers has been treating Jasmine for the last nine years.
“Jasmine was born with a normal extremity and exhibited progressive and worsening overgrowth,” Rottgers said. “It’s not what we typically see and expect for these conditions.”
Jasmine, who now is 14, was 2 when her left leg began to grow at an abnormal rate. Over the next 12 years, she spent much of her time in hospitals, going through a variety of treatments and surgeries to try to stop the overgrowth.
“Throughout (most) of my life, it didn't feel as heavy,” Jasmine said of her left leg. “But it was getting heavier to the point that I couldn't walk much, and I had to be in a wheelchair all the time."
"When I was younger, I felt insecure about my leg because everybody just kept looking and feeling it, and that made me uncomfortable.”
She underwent surgeries that attempted to remove tissue to reduce the size of her leg, and therefore more manageable from a functional standpoint.
“Every time we operated on Jasmine, the leg continued to grow,” Rottgers said. “It almost — we can't prove it — but it almost seems that as a reaction to surgery, the overgrowth became worse.”
After the amputation, Rottgers said they were able to remove the entirety of the left leg, the affected tissue in her hip region, and most of the affected tissue from her abdomen.
“Some of the muscles in the back that had been previously operated on were also involved in this and were overgrown,” Rottgers said. “They were causing expansion and she was running out of abdominal space. It was displacing her internal organs. She probably has a small amount of tissue that is still impacted by this difference. Going forward, we hope and anticipate that she should have a normal and healthy life.”
Jasmine looks forward to a normal life. She hasn't been to Braden River Middle School since October due to her health and mobility issues. She has been participating in online work and also has a teacher who comes to her home.
She plans to graduate on time from middle school with her classmates in August.
She has triumphed over physical and emotional challenges. In order to help Jasmine accept her condition while growing up, her father created a hand-drawn booklet for Jasmine called “My Lucky Leg.”
He was inspired when he saw the movie “Finding Nemo” because Nemo had a lucky fin.
“In society as a whole, we see things that don't seem to be normal in our eyes and we think that it's entertaining to a degree," Manuel said. "We stare and make fun of what we think is not normal, when in reality, we’re not normal ourselves."
Manuel tried his best to build her confidence from an early age. He told her that everyone is different — some are tall, small, thick, thin and more.
Now that Jasmine is more mobile, she is looking forward to what her future has in store. That includes her cherry blossom themed “Sweet 15” event or quinceañera. She also is looking forward to going to theme parks.
Manuel made a promise to Jasmine prior to the amputation. She has a desire to visit Tokyo, Japan.
“You want to go to Tokyo,” Manuel said. “If I have to sell my valuables (to make it happen), I will.”
“My dad is hardworking, loving, caring,” Jasmine said. “He sacrifices everything, and I feel bad for that.”
Jasmine’s leg tissue was donated for research purposes to the National Institute of Health and to Johns Hopkins.
Many of her memories growing up were of hospitals. She hopes that with the donation of her leg tissue to science, she can prevent other kids from having the same experience.
“If there was someone like me, a little boy or a little girl who had the same condition as me, they shouldn’t go through that,” Jasmine said. “My whole life has been about my leg. I don't want them to go through the same thing.”
