Columnist Susan Snyder: Shriners show that hope floats

Friday, July 13, 2001 | 9:57 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@vegas.com or 259-4082.

Ashley Briggs took her first swimming lesson Tuesday.

"I floated!" the cunning 5-year-old said.

Then she was off to the family room and her Barbie dolls.

Jen and Curtis Briggs are proud of their daughter's accomplishment. It wasn't too long ago that thoughts of swimming lessons weren't on the map.

Ashley was born with arthrogryposis, which is a condition that affects the tendons and muscles surrounding her joints.

She was born with a club left foot and very little biceps in her upper arms. The condition also affected her shoulder joints and her wrists. The tendons were so short and tight they pulled her hands up and inward.

The couple say no one knows what causes it. They suspect Ashley's case formed during the first trimester of pregnancy, when Jen Briggs contracted a virus.

The Las Vegas physician they consulted had seen only three such cases, Curtis Briggs said. And estimates of what it would take to correct the condition as Ashley grew to adulthood ranged from $500,000 to $1 million.

Enter the men in funny hats.

About 25,000 of them have been in town for the International Shriners convention at the Las Vegas Hilton.

The celebration of fez fandemonium has featured competitions for Shriners clowns, bagpipe bands and German, Dixieland, concert and dance bands.

They whizzed around on their motorcycles and in their silly little cars. They played in the casinos, hit the restaurants and attended pageants and dinner dances.

But behind the revelry are scores of little kids like Ashley, who swims and plays soccer because of treatment she receives at a Shriners hospital.

The Shriners run 21 hospitals in the United States and one in Canada, and have plans to build another in Mexico City. Shriners doctors treat children for burns and orthopedic maladies, and they do it for free.

Ashley was three months old when her parents first took her to the Shriner's hospital in Los Angeles.

"They drove us all down there the first time. After that, if she was having surgery, we'd fly," Curtis Briggs said.

The Shriners pay for the plane tickets, too. There have been about 40 visits to date. Briggs says he's lost exact count. Ashley's left foot has toes and rests almost completely flat on the floor now when she stands still.

Of course that's not often.

"She runs and hops with the best of them," her mother said.

Surgeons have partially replaced the tendons in her wrists. Her hands still turn inward, but she can draw and dress her Barbie dolls. Doctors will see how she grows before doing more surgery.

"They'll watch her until she's 18," Jen Briggs said. "Even with just the surgeries she's had up to now, I don't know how we'd have paid for it."

But they don't have to worry about that. They can focus on other, more important family business.

Curtis Briggs is a scuba diver and engineer for Bellagio's fountains. His wife also dives. Maybe family diving vacations are on the horizon?

"That would be great," Curtis Briggs said.

Well, why not? Ashley already floats after just one lesson. Seems her possibilites are infinite.