Teen doesn't let size extinguish his firefighting dreams

Vince Brasco is a typical teenager in most every way.

He loves driving his pickup truck and playing video games. He hangs out after school to lift weights with his friends and has a part-time job.

And he volunteers as a junior firefighter with the Carbon Volunteer Fire Department.

Brasco, 17, of Hempfield, does it all in spite of standing only 4 feet, 2 inches tall.

The junior at Hempfield Area High School was born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism.

"He's a powerhouse," said his dad, Bill Brasco, 48.

Achondroplasia is a genetic disorder that affects bone growth. It's manifested by very short arms and legs but a nearly normal-sized torso.

Brasco is the only member of his family with achondroplasia, which results from a gene mutation. His parents, Bill and Lesa, and sister Adele, 13, are all average height.

Achondroplasia has meant numerous surgeries for Brasco since he was a toddler.

"He was pretty sick," Lesa Brasco, 47, said of Vince as a newborn. "He stopped breathing several times after he was born."

Between 18 and 28 months of age, Brasco underwent two surgeries.

A shunt was inserted in his head to relieve fluid that was building up on his brain. The fluid was impacting Brasco's ability to talk. Later, a delicate operation alleviated pressure on his spinal cord in his neck. The pressure had caused him to stop breathing, sending him to the emergency room numerous times.

As a teen, Brasco has had three surgeries, including one to repair the shunt and another about a month ago to remove excess cartilage from his right knee.

A major surgery in 2007 left Vince in the hospital for two weeks, with more than half that time in critical care. Compression on his spinal cord was causing pain and numbness in his right leg. His spine was curving both sideways and forward. Nine of his vertebrae were fused, and two titanium rods were inserted to support his back.

"If we had let it go, he might lose the use of his right leg," Bill Brasco said.

Through it all, his passion for firefighting has sustained him.

Bill Brasco said as his son was emerging from a coma after surgery, his fire chief, George Reese, called on Vince's cell phone.

"He tried to jump out of the bed to talk to him," Bill Brasco said.

Vince joined the department in the summer of 2006 when several of his friends were joining.

"I just thought I would like it — helping people," he said.

Bill and Lesa Brasco admit they were apprehensive about the idea at first.

Bill Brasco, who had never been a firefighter, said he worried whether Vince would be able to do the tasks asked of him, but a talk with Reese reassured him.

"The fact of it is, he can physically do what the other kids can do," Bill Brasco said.

"We always encourage him to try things," Lesa Brasco said. "... It makes me nervous, but I don't want to hold him back, either. He knows to be cautious and be careful."

Reese said when Brasco approached him about joining the department, he knew the young man was serious.

"From the get-go, his disability, I wasn't going to let it stop him from participating," Reese said. "There's always a job for everybody. There's always something to do for everybody in the fire service."

Brasco himself said he never doubted he would be able to do what's asked of him as a firefighter.

"I've always thought I could because I always thought I was physically able to do it," Vince Brasco said.

Brasco has lifted weights for several years. For the past several months, he's been working out every day after school.

"I just want to get bigger," he said. "I like to be able to lift more than (his friends) can, and I can."

In fact, the 87-pound Brasco can bench press 210 pounds.

He does everything other junior firefighters do -- from helping with salvage after a fire to running radios and sirens to aiding at accident scenes.

He's even had the opportunity to man a hose at a fire.

He wears fireman's gear that the department had tailored to fit him, like his regular clothes are.

Although he has to work a little harder to get into the firetruck, he finds a way.

"If we're in a hurry, I'll have someone throw me in," he said.

Brasco also helps with the other aspects of volunteer firefighting by working at fish fries and selling lottery tickets.

"He has a unique determination," Reese said. "He's determined. I think if he wants to do something, he puts his mind to it."

When he turns 18 in June, Brasco plans get the training to become a senior volunteer firefighter. He also plans to become an EMT and get a job in that field.

"I don't see anything at this time that will stop him," Reese said. "I actually look forward to moving on to the next level (of firefighting) with him."

He balances firefighting with a part-time job mopping floors and washing dishes at the Grove Street Bakery in Greensburg -- and high school.

Frannie Sellers, a math teacher at Hempfield Area High School, said Brasco is a fun-loving but hardworking student who never lets his height keep him from doing things.

"It's tough being a teenager regardless, but he handles it with such grace," Sellers said. "He doesn't let it interfere with anything. Whatever his plans are, he does it."

He just laughs and teases her when she writes problems on the blackboard at her height and asks the students, including Brasco, to go up and write the answers.

"There's nothing about him that says, 'Feel sorry for me, or cut me a break -- nothing,' " Sellers said.

Brasco said he hopes his accomplishments prove that a person's strength can't be measured by inches or pounds.

"It doesn't matter what size you are," he said.

"It's the size of your heart," his father said.