Guest guest Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 I have just read an article in a National Newspaper about a 2 year old boy who has has both his feet amputated. All it says is that he was born with 2 club feet and they were told he would probably never be able to walk properly, and would have to have loads of operations so it would be best to have the taken off. This was in Wales (UK) at the and Agnes Hunt Orthopedic Hospital. I am completely shocked. I thought that in this day and age that would never even be considered. Rach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 OMG! How horrible.that poor kid! That is barbaric! I think a lot of it should be blamed on the parents because if they took the time to do a little research they would have found that they didn't have to cut their son's feet off!!!!! Mommy to (12-17-98) and Christian (1-30-04) LCF - DBB 23/7 _____ From: Rach Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 8:59 AM To: nosurgery4clubfoot Subject: Amputation I have just read an article in a National Newspaper about a 2 year old boy who has has both his feet amputated. All it says is that he was born with 2 club feet and they were told he would probably never be able to walk properly, and would have to have loads of operations so it would be best to have the taken off. This was in Wales (UK) at the and Agnes Hunt Orthopedic Hospital. I am completely shocked. I thought that in this day and age that would never even be considered. Rach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 OMG! How brutal! s. Amputation I have just read an article in a National Newspaper about a 2 year old boy who has has both his feet amputated. All it says is that he was born with 2 club feet and they were told he would probably never be able to walk properly, and would have to have loads of operations so it would be best to have the taken off. This was in Wales (UK) at the and Agnes Hunt Orthopedic Hospital. I am completely shocked. I thought that in this day and age that would never even be considered. Rach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 That is absolutely devastating!!!! I am in tears just thinking about it. Shook Retail Operations Manager/Baking Instructor Vie de France Yamazaki, Inc. 2070 Chain Bridge Rd. Suite 500 Vienna, VA 22182 x374 x374 fax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 Rach, The possible Amputation of a foot is rare but one of the more severe potential complications of the major clubfoot surgery. As you are aware, with the proper use of the Ponseti method, the major surgery (and potential clubfoot surgery complications) is avoided. I am aware of 3 doctors and one internet web site who have indicated that one of the more severe but rare potential complications of the posterior release types of surgery can be surgically related problems that could lead to the eventual amputation of the foot. Between them the first 2 doctors had seen where this had occurred 4 times for patients that had been referred to them. More recently, I heard another doctor speak who mentioned that he was aware of 14 cases where a child had to have a foot amputated. My assumption is that his information was from either a wide area or national basis in the United States over the course of many years. Although I would hope and think that this is rather rare, it is still a potential risk and complication of the major clubfoot surgery. (a surgery that is very avoidable). http://www.footlaw.com/news/13.html It is sad that this occured at Hospital in the U.K. In his 1996 book, Dr. Ponseti said " from Liverpool and London wrote in 1923 that he had never met with a case where treatment has been started in the first week where the deformity could not be completely rectified by manipulation and retention in two months ( 1923). His experience could not be duplicated in our department nor in other clinics I visited, and the results were far from perfect after a very prolonged treatment. Faced with these disappointing results, I set out to discover how a clubfoot could be corrected through manipulation and retention casts in a two-month period after birth, as had claimed. " Apparently, had discovered how to correct clubfoot non- surgically by 1923 (which would have had to been somehow similar to the Ponseti method), but the non-surgical ability to correct clubfoot was lost over the ensueing years until Dr. Ponseti " rediscovered " it in the late 1940's and 1950's. Even Dr. Ponseti's method was largely ignored from the 1960's to 1990's until parents on the internet found out about it and helped to spread the information to other parents. and (3-17-99) > I have just read an article in a National Newspaper about a 2 year old boy > who has has both his feet amputated. All it says is that he was born with 2 > club feet and they were told he would probably never be able to walk > properly, and would have to have loads of operations so it would be best to > have the taken off. This was in Wales (UK) at the and Agnes > Hunt Orthopedic Hospital. > > I am completely shocked. I thought that in this day and age that would never > even be considered. > > Rach > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 OMG - someone needs to bring charges against the doc that did this to him. A protest or something in front of the Queen! (LOL - would that get one arrested hehe!) What a horrible thing! What kind of evil doctor would do that to a little boy? If WE - lowly parents can find information about how to treat CF without surgery or AMPUTATION for chrissake a freaking doctor can too. Ohhh this is just boiling my blood!!! Kori At 05:59 AM 12/13/2004, you wrote: >I have just read an article in a National Newspaper about a 2 year old boy >who has has both his feet amputated. All it says is that he was born with 2 >club feet and they were told he would probably never be able to walk >properly, and would have to have loads of operations so it would be best to >have the taken off. This was in Wales (UK) at the and Agnes >Hunt Orthopedic Hospital. > >I am completely shocked. I thought that in this day and age that would never >even be considered. > >Rach > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 I want to add my 2 cents... I remember reading an on-line newspaper article that I think Claire's mom, , found a few years ago about a child in the U.S. (Florida I think) who also had a foot amputated due to what the newspaper reported was 'clubfoot' after under-going multiple previously unsuccessful surgeries. At the time I was shocked and outraged just as many of you are after hearing about this case in the U.K. I would *hope* that for these children, the amputation was not due to uninformed or misguided doctors and parents...I would hope that they maybe had complicated conditions with their feet where there were missing or mal-formed bones that the medical staff weren't sure could ever be fixed. Unfortunately, without knowing the families or the reporters, we'd never know the details...but it does seem like newspapers pare down medical stories to the bare details so maybe something very rare and complicated might just be described as " clubfoot " by a reporter for the sake of simplicity (in their eyes). There was one mother on the PP board a year or two ago whose son had short, missing and/or malformed limbs. I cannot remember the actual medical term for his condition, but it appeared to look like a clubfoot externally, however could not be treated like typical clubfeet- she was on our board because she had similarities in the treatment she was seeking, but her son's case was very rare. For her son, amputation was also an option that the doctors had discussed with her if the casting/surgeries didn't work out. (I don't know how it ended up for them) Perhaps the same is true for this child in the UK- perhaps they tried to treat him and weren't making much progress and the doctors finally decided that the surgeries were going to be worse in the end than just having him use prosthetics. (I also have friends who chose to have their 2 year old daughter's leg amputated after a horrible lawn-mower accident as there were no promises that the numerous required re-constructive surgeries over the next few years after the accident would have allowed her leg to function (but would have been very painful for her to endure) yet her ability to adapt to a prosthetic leg at a young age was quick and amazing.) Personally, I was disappointed in the " description " of clubfoot that was used in the paper that covered the U of Iowa symposium in November. Here is one of the most well-reknown clubfoot doctors in the world interviewing with a local reporter and in the end the description that they used to explain clubfoot to the public was pretty poor by my standards. For those of us whom clubfoot has deeply affected, a story about a child losing limbs to the same condition is unfathomable...but we can hope that maybe it was something " more than clubfoot " and amputation was the best route for this child in order to give him/her the best quality of life. I can't imagine any parent would enter into amputation lightly...I would hope that it's just that we're not getting the " whole story " from the media source. This is really long-winded- but I guess I just wanted to say that I don't always " trust " what I read in the papers to be complete and accurate, and I hope that for the children in question amputation was the best option and it was not entered into lightly by the medical community caring for those little ones...and I do *hope* that they had something more complicated than congenital idiopathic clubfoot! & (3-16-00) left clubfoot > I have just read an article in a National Newspaper about a 2 year old boy > who has has both his feet amputated. All it says is that he was born with 2 > club feet and they were told he would probably never be able to walk > properly, and would have to have loads of operations so it would be best to > have the taken off. This was in Wales (UK) at the and Agnes > Hunt Orthopedic Hospital. > > I am completely shocked. I thought that in this day and age that would never > even be considered. > > Rach > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 I want to add my 2 cents... I remember reading an on-line newspaper article that I think Claire's mom, , found a few years ago about a child in the U.S. (Florida I think) who also had a foot amputated due to what the newspaper reported was 'clubfoot' after under-going multiple previously unsuccessful surgeries. At the time I was shocked and outraged just as many of you are after hearing about this case in the U.K. I would *hope* that for these children, the amputation was not due to uninformed or misguided doctors and parents...I would hope that they maybe had complicated conditions with their feet where there were missing or mal-formed bones that the medical staff weren't sure could ever be fixed. Unfortunately, without knowing the families or the reporters, we'd never know the details...but it does seem like newspapers pare down medical stories to the bare details so maybe something very rare and complicated might just be described as " clubfoot " by a reporter for the sake of simplicity (in their eyes). There was one mother on the PP board a year or two ago whose son had short, missing and/or malformed limbs. I cannot remember the actual medical term for his condition, but it appeared to look like a clubfoot externally, however could not be treated like typical clubfeet- she was on our board because she had similarities in the treatment she was seeking, but her son's case was very rare. For her son, amputation was also an option that the doctors had discussed with her if the casting/surgeries didn't work out. (I don't know how it ended up for them) Perhaps the same is true for this child in the UK- perhaps they tried to treat him and weren't making much progress and the doctors finally decided that the surgeries were going to be worse in the end than just having him use prosthetics. (I also have friends who chose to have their 2 year old daughter's leg amputated after a horrible lawn-mower accident as there were no promises that the numerous required re-constructive surgeries over the next few years after the accident would have allowed her leg to function (but would have been very painful for her to endure) yet her ability to adapt to a prosthetic leg at a young age was quick and amazing.) Personally, I was disappointed in the " description " of clubfoot that was used in the paper that covered the U of Iowa symposium in November. Here is one of the most well-reknown clubfoot doctors in the world interviewing with a local reporter and in the end the description that they used to explain clubfoot to the public was pretty poor by my standards. For those of us whom clubfoot has deeply affected, a story about a child losing limbs to the same condition is unfathomable...but we can hope that maybe it was something " more than clubfoot " and amputation was the best route for this child in order to give him/her the best quality of life. I can't imagine any parent would enter into amputation lightly...I would hope that it's just that we're not getting the " whole story " from the media source. This is really long-winded- but I guess I just wanted to say that I don't always " trust " what I read in the papers to be complete and accurate, and I hope that for the children in question amputation was the best option and it was not entered into lightly by the medical community caring for those little ones...and I do *hope* that they had something more complicated than congenital idiopathic clubfoot! & (3-16-00) left clubfoot > I have just read an article in a National Newspaper about a 2 year old boy > who has has both his feet amputated. All it says is that he was born with 2 > club feet and they were told he would probably never be able to walk > properly, and would have to have loads of operations so it would be best to > have the taken off. This was in Wales (UK) at the and Agnes > Hunt Orthopedic Hospital. > > I am completely shocked. I thought that in this day and age that would never > even be considered. > > Rach > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 That is just unbelievably shocking! How awful! You must have felt sick after reading it! Makes you want to string up the doctors and the parents for that matter! & Grace > I have just read an article in a National Newspaper about a 2 year old boy > who has has both his feet amputated. All it says is that he was born with 2 > club feet and they were told he would probably never be able to walk > properly, and would have to have loads of operations so it would be best to > have the taken off. This was in Wales (UK) at the and Agnes > Hunt Orthopedic Hospital. > > I am completely shocked. I thought that in this day and age that would never > even be considered. > > Rach > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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