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A Washington County teen hopes to take home honors in a statewide science competition in her last year of eligibility, having missed the last several years because she was sick and awaiting a liver transplant.
Alicia Hruby, 17, of Monongahela has been working with University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg chemistry professor Mark Stauffer on her project for the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science, which will hold its regional competition Feb. 25 at California University of Pennsylvania.
“I wish I had more students like Alicia. She's a very rapid learner,” Stauffer said. “Not every high school student gets to do this kind of thing.”
Hruby is a senior who had been attending Ringgold High School but has been tutored at home for the past year while recovering from a liver transplant and a litany of complications. Doctors diagnosed her at 13 with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a rare, progressive disease of the bile ducts that was attacking her liver. She took honors in the statewide science competition in seventh and eighth grades but then was sidelined by her illness.
She received a transplant in March 2015 but continues to struggle with lasting damage and drugs that keep her immune system suppressed just enough not to reject her new liver.
Hruby's science project focused on the intersection of archaeology and chemistry, two fields she said she would love to pursue in her studies. She analyzed soil samples from a local dig site looking for increased levels of phosphorus and calcium that could indicate the presence of decayed bones.
Stauffer led her to the project after learning of her interest in archaeology and knowing a university working on the dig.
“I wasn't in school, and (Stauffer) is pretty much my teacher,” Hruby said. “During downtime, we'd talk about archaeology, artifacts, history, space, and we'd have fun.
“I couldn't have a better mentor.”
University officials and the landowner are keeping the location and nature of the archaeological site confidential to protect any artifacts there until the research is complete.
Under Stauffer, Hruby used Pitt-Greensburg's lab equipment to extract chemicals from soil samples and feed the liquid into a flame atomic absorption spectrometer. The machine burns a fine spray of liquid samples and analyzes the color spectrum produced to determine what elements are present.
“Alicia's work is pretty much like a (college senior's) capstone project. … Those students get two terms,” Stauffer said.
“I've worked on it in two months,” Hruby said.
For the competition, she will give a presentation of her project to a panel of judges and turn in a packet outlining her hypothesis, procedures, research, vocabulary and a bibliography.
There are still scares and struggles for Hruby and her family: she hops on one leg or uses crutches to get around most of the time; she wears a surgical mask to protect herself from germs when around other people; she has trouble swallowing and digesting food; she suffers nerve pain in her hands, knees and ankles; and her illness affected her brain in a way that left her dyslexic.
“She almost died three times,” said her father, Tim. “When they say (the disease) happens in 1 percent of the people, that's us.”
Her low blood pressure means she often has to move slowly and deliberately or risk blacking out — a difficult task for an exuberant teenager.
“It's a little unnerving because sometimes you get so dizzy if you just stand up too fast,” she said. “I do things slow. My life has gone from hyper-as-ever to slowed-down.”
Struggling for years with a deadly disease and coming away with a new liver has given Hruby a positive outlook, both on her prospects in the academy competition and any other challenges she may face. She said working on the competition and exercising to rebuild muscle she lost to months in the hospital have given her mental and physical milestones to pursue.
“These are not dreams anymore; they're goals,” she said. “I know I can do this. I've worked so hard, there's no way I can't.”
Matthew Santoni is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-6660 or msantoni@tribweb.com.
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