Watching Shadoe Perry run around on the soccer field or the basketball court or hanging out with her friends, the 17-year-old appears just like any other teenager at Owen County High School.
And that’s exactly what the Perry family wants.
Larry Dale and Theresa Perry encourage their daughter to live a normal life — to play sports and have fun and enjoy herself.
Just like any other parents, they want the best for their daughter and for her to get every opportunity to live her life to the fullest.
What separates Shadoe from her classmates isn’t something anyone can see.
Shadoe was born with a heart condition called Tetralogy of Fallot, which involves four different heart malformations, including a hole between the two bottom chambers of the heart.
When Shadoe was born, doctors in Frankfort heard what they thought was a heart murmur and kept her overnight.
The following day Larry Dale and Theresa took Shadoe to a cardiologist in Louisville, where they ran some tests, but like the doctors in Frankfort, couldn’t find anything significantly wrong with Shadoe.
The Perrys took Shadoe back to Louisville and to her local pediatrician about once a week through the first two to three months.
During one visit, everything went horribly wrong.
“She threw a fit and turned blue,” Theresa said.
Once they had Shadoe calmed down, the Perrys went straight from the doctor’s office to the hospital, where doctors discovered the heart defect.
Shadoe spent the next 30 days at the hospital, undergoing open heart surgery when she was 3 months old.
Shadoe’s earliest memories of the effects of her heart defect are from sports.
“If it was cold and I was really hot, the wires in my chest would sting,” she said. “I felt like I had sharp pains in my chest, like something was stabbing into me.”
Despite the pain, Shadoe wasn’t about to give up athletics.
And she received the full support of her doctor.
“My doctor told me to do anything I wanted,” Shadoe said. “I play sports all the time. I can’t remember not doing anything and not having something to do.”
Larry Dale and Theresa, both EMTs, completely supported their daughter’s desire to go out for sports teams.
“Her doctor tells her to do everything and anything she wants, because there may come a time when she’s not able to,” Theresa said. “She has no restrictions. Right now, she’s enjoying it.”
When Shadoe plays for the Lady Rebels, at least one of her parents is normally on hand, with Larry Dale usually perched in the front row.
“There is always that feeling that something could happen,” Theresa said. “We’re both EMTs and sometimes a little bit of knowledge is worse.”
Shadoe has also had to learn to stifle the competitive edge in favor of her health.
“The sports I play are all physical,” she said. “I have to watch what I do. When I’m tired I need to get out.”
Living with a heart defect Shadoe will always have to be a little more careful than her peers.
When Shadoe was in seventh-grade she weighed 119 pounds, and doctors told her she needed to lose weight, fearing that if she continued to get bigger she would run the risk of being obese, which would put too great a strain on her heart.
She lives with a scar on her chest and she’s had to deal with jokes or comments about her condition from other kids.
But her mother thinks it’s all made Shadoe a stronger person.
“It matured her beyond years, for what she’s been through,” Theresa said.
Larry Dale doesn’t worry too much about his daughter. He just likes going to the games and seeing his daughter happy.
“She’s a success story,” he said, noting that her success isn’t the norm for patients with heart defects.
“I don’t worry about it at all,” he said. “She’s done good.”
On and off the playing fields, Shadoe remains upbeat, smiling her way to success.
And if she has any advice for people, it’s to make the most of your life with the cards your dealt.
“I would probably say that you’re who you are, and God made you that way, and live life to the fullest,” Shadoe said. “Everyone has problems.”

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