At 18, Kim Tran Willis was staring down a 52-degree curve in her spine and the possibility of life-altering surgery, just as she was preparing to leave home for college.
Seventeen years later, she’s a wife, a new mom, and a successful interior designer living halfway around the world in Vietnam. And the surgeon who helped change her life? He just operated on her nephew.
Her gratitude runs deep, spanning oceans, generations, and returning to the trusted hands of one remarkable Rady Children’s Health physician.
A difficult diagnosis, a bold decision
In 2008, Kim was a newly minted high school graduate when she was diagnosed with scoliosis. Her spine had curved so sharply that doctors told her it would continue to worsen without surgical intervention.
With college right around the corner, the decision felt urgent.
“Now or never,” Kim recalls thinking.
She was referred to Rady Children’s Health Orange County (formerly known as CHOC) and pediatric orthopedic surgeon Dr. Afshin Aminian, who would perform a seven-hour spinal fusion that left her with titanium rods, a long scar, and, as she puts it, a new perspective on life.
“The care I received was beyond anything we could’ve imagined,” Kim says. “I had my own room, a bed for my mom, and a nurse who stayed with me through the worst nights. She massaged my back when even morphine wasn’t enough.”
For Kim and her family, it felt less like a hospital and more like what she affectionately describes as “a hotel, with morphine and angels in scrubs.”
Recovery, and a brand-new start
Within three months, Kim was back to herself—strong, pain-free, and slightly more “bionic,” she jokes.
She even got a zipper tag tattoo at the end of her long scar, a tribute to her journey and a fun conversation starter.
“People will ask about a small bump on my back,” she laughs. “I tell them it’s a screw. You should see their faces.”
The surgery gave Kim more than physical relief. It gave her the freedom to chase a life that had once felt out of reach.
She moved to London for college, launched a career as a hospitality interior designer, lived in Hong Kong, and eventually settled in Vietnam. She got married. And in 2024, she became a mother.
Facing childbirth with strength and no epidural
One of Kim’s biggest fears back in 2008 was how her spinal rods might affect her ability to have children one day. She had always hoped for a natural birth, but an epidural was off the table.
“Childbirth is already scary,” she says. “But without an epidural, it felt like taking away the one safety net.”
Still, when her son Noah arrived, just two and a half hours after Kim was admitted to the hospital, she knew she could handle it.
“I realized then that the surgery hadn’t taken anything from me. It had given me strength. I didn’t just get through childbirth, I powered through it.”
A full-circle moment, 17 years later
One week after Noah was born, Kim’s nephew, Benjamin, was diagnosed with scoliosis. He needed the same surgery Kim had undergone.
When her brother told her the procedure would be done at Rady Children’s, she had one question:
“Who’s the surgeon?”
The answer—Dr. Aminian—stopped her in her tracks.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she says. “Seventeen years later, he’s still doing the same surgery. It was surreal. Beautiful, actually.”
Kim knew immediately her nephew was in excellent hands. And she was able to reassure her family in a way only someone with lived experience could.
More than medicine
For Kim, Rady Children’s was more than just a place to receive world-class medical care.
It was where she learned how strong she really was.
It was where her mother found the confidence to let her daughter move halfway across the globe.
And it was where her family, many years later, would return for the same compassionate, expert care, for the next generation.
“That kind of care, with that level of dignity and humanity… it’s a luxury people in many parts of the world will never know. We’ll be forever grateful.” Kim says.
A legacy that lives on
These days, Kim swims with Noah, just like she once swam for her own recovery.
Back in high school, Kim was on the swim team. In college, she became a swim instructor for babies, a job that helped her pay her way through school. Now, she shares that same joy with her son in the water.
“Seeing babies pop up with big, wet smiles,” she says, “it reminds me how far I’ve come.”
For Kim, the surgery didn’t just correct her spine. It gave her the freedom to live, love, travel, build a family, and inspire others to believe in what’s possible.
“I’m not made of glass,” she told her mom after surgery. “I’m made of metal.”
That strength has carried Kim through continents, careers, and motherhood, and now, it’s part of her family’s story, too.
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