At 15, soccer was Michael Smith's passion, but 11 surgeries and 16 days at Cardon Children's Medical Center led him to a new one - helping injured kids.

Smith, now 19, has spent his summer interning with Dr. Greg Hrasky, the pediatric orthopedic surgeon who saved Smith's leg from amputation.

The trouble started in September 2005 when Smith suffered a "clean break" to his right tibia while running toward a ball during a soccer game. A player from the opposing team was running at the ball, too.

"As I went to kick it, he came sliding through," Smith said.

Smith was taken to the former Banner Mesa Medical Center, near Country Club Drive and Brown Road, where his leg was put in a full cast. Soon after, though, his leg started to swell near the break. Because the cast wouldn't allow the break to swell naturally, it swelled internally, causing the circulation in his leg to slow.

Hrasky was brought in to help soon after.

To remedy the internal swelling, the surgeon had to make several long incisions in Smith's leg, essentially relieving the pressure and allowing the blood to begin to flow. Left untreated with no oxygen, the muscles in Smith's leg could have died.

In total, Smith underwent 11 surgeries, including skin grafting from a Banner plastic surgeon.

During his time at the hospital, Smith became interested in the work the medical professionals around him were doing. He later shadowed an anesthesiologist before deciding the career wasn't for him.

But the work Hrasky did to save Smith's leg appealed to the teenager.

Smith graduated from Red Mountain High School in 2009, and he is going to start his sophomore year studying nutrition at Arizona State University in the fall. He hopes to go on to medical school.

Growing up, Smith said, he wasn't the best student. He focused on soccer, not academics. Now that he's studying something he finds interesting, though, his grades have picked up.

"Now, I go into a test feeling confident," he said. "I want to learn. . . . My parents are completely amazed."

Though Smith does spend more time focused on academics, this fall he'll get back to sports at Chandler-Gilbert Community College on a soccer scholarship.

Only eight months after his accident, Smith was back to playing competitive soccer. The rest of his high school career was filled with top honors and championships, which he hopes to continue at Chandler-Gilbert.

Even after it was clear Smith wouldn't lose his leg, no one was sure there would be no muscle damage. Hrasky said the possibility of Smith returning to soccer, at least in the capacity he played at before, was questionable at best.

"Fortunately, he really had a near miraculous bounce back and went on to a phenomenal high school soccer career," Hrasky said.

During his first few months in Hrasky's offices in Mesa and Scottsdale, Smith has shadowed the surgeon in his office and in the operating room, helped with casts and other minor medical procedures and learned how to bill patients and work in the front office.

Smith has become the office's "resident technology whiz," helping advance the practice technologically with devices like the iPad, which is used to store patient charts and records.

Smith's favorite part has been getting to interact with patients. Knowing he's making a difference, even if it's a small one, makes all the hard work ahead of him seem easier. "It really helps to look at the end goal," he said.

Because he has been through problems similar to what patients in Hrasky's office face, Smith can relate to them the way someone who has never had a serious injury can't. His age helps him relate to young patients and make them feel comfortable, Hrasky said.

"That's thrilling for a lot of the kids who come through our practice . . . because he's a bridge between my generation and their generation," he said.

Smith said his ultimate goal is to take over for the man who sparked his interest in medicine.

"I keep telling him, if he stays long enough, I'm going to take his practice over," he said.

Working with Smith would be "fantastic," Hrasky said. "He's grown into the type of young man who anyone would be proud to have as a son."