As
older parents - I was 40 and my husband was
43 - we were thrilled when Alexander was born.
Only one small cloud darkened the happy occasion.
He had both feet turned inwards like little
golf
clubs. It hadn't shown up on the ultrasound and
the obstetrician was visibly taken aback when
she delivered him. Yet the paediatrician and the
nurses where unanimous that clubfoot is easy to
fix.
That was not our
experience initially. After 8 weeks of plaster
casts applied by a local orthopedic surgeon who'd
been recommended by an expert, we found ourselves
faced with the idea of the surgeon slicing Alexander's
new baby-pink skin to cut and reattach the tendons
and ligaments and put pins in his tiny feet............read
on
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Daily Iowan, September 2007 (Ponseti International Symposium)
The healing touch for clubfoot
Alex Moss pounded forward in his Spiderman shoes,
which flashed red light as his healthy, sturdy little legs
churned furiously.
As the 4-year-olds completed the
Ponseti
Clubfoot Races on Sept. 14, the cavernous
event hall
at
Marriott Coralville Hotel echoed with the
cheers of families.
Later, the children queued for
photographs around
93-year-old
Ignacio Ponseti, the
man
responsible for
reshaping their once twisted and
crippled limbs.
The International Clubfoot Symposium, which began
Sept.12 drew more than 40 families and
200 physicians
from 44 different countries to the area. Experts
discussed
research about the
defect - which affects
150,000 babies
born worldwide each year - and
considered ways to increase
availability of treatments
to Third World countries at the
four-day event.
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Health24.Com, November 2007
A Journey of STEPS In January 2003, Karen Moss gave birth to Alexander. He was born with bilateral clubfoot, a
congenital disorder of which the cause is unknown.
Clubfoot refers to the position of the foot, a sharp angle to the ankle like the head of a golf club. It
causes the foot to turn inward and point downward.
Karen knew very little about the condition at the time.
“My cousin had one clubfoot when I was a
child and I remembered him wearing a calliper for some time and having operations. I was
worried about the prospects for my baby boy having both feet clubbed.”
Early treatment
When Alex was eight days old, he had his first casting session done. New plaster casts were put
on every week for eight weeks. “I had to pull on his toe and hold his knee straight for the orthopaedic surgeon to wind the
bandages on and then he would pull his foot straighter while the plaster hardened,” says Karen.
However, the treatment had not worked enough to straighten his feet and at three months Alex
faced corrective surgery.... read on
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