Izomanga Lucas is a 4-year-old boy from Jeffrey’s Bay with bilateral clubfoot who has defaulted treatment since 2018. He lives with his family in Jeffrey’s Bay roughly 100 kilometres from the closest clubfoot clinic which is at Livingstone Hospital.
Physiotherapist Judy Prince says, “Izomanga first came to our clinic at Livingstone Hospital in 2017 when he was eight months old, with severe bilateral clubfeet. Our clinic team started the casting process and his feet were showing good progress.”
Although it was sometimes difficult for his mother Anelisa to get to the clinic, Izomanga attended his appointments regularly.
“Izomanga developed a skin irritation during the casting process,” says Judy. “His mom would remove the casts early and not come to the clinic for the scheduled follow-up appointment while the skin was healing.”
Izomanga then became very ill and was having seizures. He had many investigative studies at his nearest hospital, but they couldn’t identify the cause of the seizures. Luckily, Izomanga is now much better, and mom and toddler are once again seeking treatment.
“They had to start from the beginning again with casting,” says Judy. “But Izomanga is showing such good progress in his treatment that in time he will be able to walk and wear shoes like other children.”
Anelisa says, “When Izomanga was better and we came back to the clinic, they gave me a Steps pamphlet explaining what clubfoot is and how it could be treated. I have learned from this and I want to tell other parents not to leave their child’s feet unattended. Even though it was COVID-19, I should have come back as soon as my son was healthy. Now he is walking on backwards feet, and the doctors have told me it will be much more difficult to treat because he is big.”
“I really want my son to be treated so he can walk properly and not be disabled. Judy at the clinic explained everything to me and told me how important it is to come to the follow up appointments so my son’s feet can be corrected. I am going to do this for my son, even though we have to travel far, so he can have straight feet and walk”
– Anelisa
