Life changing surgery!!

A beautiful young girl from Limpopo province was brought to us for assistance, with a marked difference in length between her left and right legs with the right leg markedly shorter than the other, severely impacting her quality of life that would become much worse as she grow older.

We took her to see Dr Schoeman a well-known orthopaedic surgeon in Nelspruit, and he suggested she receive a Growth plate fusion to her left knee, also called epiphysiodesis to correct the problem of her one leg being shorter than the other.

An epiphysiodesis essentially slows the growth rate of the longer leg in order to allow the shorter leg to catch up.

When bones are still growing, correcting limb length discrepancy can be accomplished with surgery that slows down or stops the growth of the longer limb. For adults, this procedure is not an option.

Each of the long bones in your lower limb (femur, tibia, fibula) has a growth centre at the top and bottom of the bone. The surgeon can selectively slow the growth of a bone by targeting one or more of the growth centres in the bones of the longer leg.

Thank you once again Dr’s Schoeman and Schoeman for your very kind assistance to this young girl and to Busamed Lowveld Private Hospital in Nelspruit, for your continued support to us and the children we bring to you for surgeries. And last but not least Hester Nel from StepMed in Nelspruit who assisted with the initial neurological examination and together with Lauren Porter from Hoedspruit also assists with the rehabilitation process.

When this girl dance at her matric farewell in the future, it will be because of you, so once again thank you.

Children only need a chance to flourish…