Long Island teen with heart defect gets surprise from Dancing With the Stars champion

GLEN COVE (WABC) -- A very rare heart defect nearly sidelined a Long Island girl from her love of dancing.

But a local doctor saved the 14-year old's dreams, and on Tuesday she showed off her fancy footwork and got a big surprise from a Dancing With the Stars champion.

From the moment she starts tapping, you can tell Gianna Schupler has award winning talent.

The fancy footwork, high energy, and adorable smile on this 9th grader's face shows just how far she's come.

Gianna has won two national dancing awards since recovering from open heart surgery at Northshore LIJ's Cohen Children's Hospital, where doctors found a rare and potentially life-threatening malfunction last year, in her left coronary artery.

Gianna was fainting repeatedly.

"Where I would collapse on the floor and start to twitch and turn blue, and my eyes would roll back," she said.

"Actually this condition is unfortunately the secibd most common cause of death in young, exercising people," said Dr. David Meyer of Cohen Children's Hospital.

And so Tuesday at Dance With Me studio in Glen Cove, Gianna took part in a news conference about her recovery.

At least that was what they told her. They just left out one little detail, actually not so little.

Gianna didn't know the man who owns the place is Val Chmerkovskiy. The guy hanging out with Rumer Willis on Dancing With the Stars..the guy taking home the mirrored ball.

There was also a spontaneous tap session, not to be outdone by an impromptu salsa And for a girl who'd love to appear on Dancing With The Stars, the surprises kept coming.

"So this season...I'm gonna try to do something where you and I could perform?", said Chmerkovskiy.

"Really? Are you serious??", she said.

"Yeah," he responded.

Wait...what? For Gianna, it was a dream come true! Her mother was just glad a CAT scan provided answers.

"I mean this took 3 years to diagnose, she collapsed five times in three years," said her mom Maria Schupler.

They hope other parents take note and realize that this is the best outcome a girl could have.

The spring in her step says it all.