Five-year-old Haumea Friel walks, twirls and leaps into her father’s waiting arms — all with the help of seldom performed surgeries to overcome a rare condition and a glittery purple prosthetic leg she dubbed “Sparkle.”

The Waikele girl was born with proximal femoral focal deficiency (PFFD), affecting 1 in every 200,000 children.

“She was born without the upper one half of her thigh bone, really not much of a hip, and the leg is profoundly short,” pediatric orthopedic surgeon Dr. William Burkhalter said.

The Children’s Miracle Network selected Haumea as Hawaii’s 2020 Champion for Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, with many local and national companies giving her and her family several gifts, including a trip to Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

Haumea was excited about Disney World, but she was thrilled she might get the chance to visit with a special friend in Florida.

Kainoa Friel, Haumea’s mother, searched social media to find parents of kids with PFFD and discovered a woman whose little boy Aiden suffers from the same condition. He also happens to live in Florida. The two kids have become pals through video calls on FaceTime, just talking about kid stuff.

“Aiden is like me,” Haumea said.

Haumea underwent nine surgeries, including five major ones — three of which were done prior to an unusual 16-hour surgery called rotationplasty.

Historically with PFFD, people amputate the foot, fuse the knee to make a long segment and walk with a prosthesis, Burkhalter said. “What you’re basically doing is you’re throwing away a good ankle, fusing a good knee and keeping a bad hip. Why would you do that?”

“By turning the limb around, you can convert a good knee into her hip, and her good ankle into a knee because it makes a big difference how much of you is prosthesis,” he said. “It’s just a prosthesis down below.

“It’s not a normal hip but it’s better. It bends, doesn’t hurt and it’s stable,” he said.

The idea of turning around the foot has been used in other conditions, Burkhalter said. “You have to tell them, ‘We’re going to cut off your leg, turn it around. The foot’s going in the wrong direction, and we’re leaving the toes on. If you don’t leave them on, it doesn’t work as well.’

“Most parents will run away,” he said. “You need the right set of parents” who will say, “That makes sense.”

He attributes the 5-year-old’s cohesive family — parents Kainoa and Calen Friel and their extended family — for her success.

Kainoa Friel said if they had gone “the lengthening route, she would have been in surgery till she was a teenager.”

They researched the procedures, prayed on it, then decided as a family “the rotationplasty was the best, and, come to find out, the only option (Haumea) had because her hip wasn’t going to be stable,” Friel said.

“We’re just really glad that she can just learn and just live life and not have to worry about being in the hospital for half her life,” she said.

How does a little girl go through so many surgeries?

“Every time she has a surgery, she always asks who’s going to be there,” Kainoa Friel said, her eyes welling with tears. “We have to name everyone that’s going to be outside. When she wakes up she asks, ‘Mom, was my family there?’ ‘Yes, everyone,’ and she swipes through all the pictures.”

“She has a big support system. Everyone wears a Team Haumea T-shirt, and if they can’t come to the hospital that day, they wear it and post their picture.”

Haumea’s mom and dad work for Uncle Lani’s, her grandmother’s poi mochi business on Oahu, so their time has been flexible.

The company has been raising funds for nearly 28 years at Walmart, and a lot of their proceeds have gone and all the tips at all its locations go to CMN.

“It came full circle,” Friel said. “We never really knew how much support they gave.”

CMN has paid for all Haumea’s surgeries.

Children’s Miracle Network funds have gone to key programs and services at Kapiolani, including the Child Life Program and critical care transport team, and 100% of gifts made in Hawaii goes to help local keiki, Hawaii Pacific Health said in a news release.

Haumea’s dad is a former University of Hawaii football player; her mom, a former high school volleyball player. Haumea wants to play volleyball. Friel said they discovered sitting volleyball.

“She can do whatever she wants,” she said.

Haumea is “very shy in the beginning, but once she warms up to you, she really shows you her true side and she’s just an amazing little girl and she’s taught us so much,” Friel said.

“Auntie” Stacie Keliinoi, who leads her physical therapy at Kapiolani, has helped her walk on her own, and now, Haumea said, “I want to learn how to run.”