WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Imagine the doctors saying
amputation is your only option. That's the reality for some kids born with leg
deformities. One doctor is working to give these children more choices,
including a treatment that allows them to keep their legs. The process isn't
easy ... but for two girls, the pain is worth a future on their own two feet.
Kelly Lockett doesn't miss a step when browsing for her next purchase, even
though this 13-year old has depended on one leg her entire life. Kelly was born
with the bone behind her shin missing. The condition deformed her foot and
shortened her leg. Doctors told her mom amputation was the best option.
"We were told she would have psychological scars from all the surgeries, and
therefore we should amputate," Kelly's mom, Carolyn Lockett, told Ivanhoe.
"The most common way to treat these conditions up until now has been to amputate
the foot," Dror Paley, M.D., director of the Paley Advanced Limb Lengthening
Institute at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., explained.
Dr. Paley has been working for 23 years to correct limb deformities and injuries
without amputation.
"Although it's more surgery, you end up with your own leg," he said.
He broke Kelly's shin bone and implanted a metal fixator -- worn for eight
months -- that's designed to slowly lengthen the bone 1 millemeter every day.
"What's happening in the lengthening is every single day, you're pulling the
bone apart," Dr. Paley explained. "The bone is a living substance. It makes new
bone to fill in where you break it. You're pulling it apart, and it makes new
bone to fill that gap."
Patients have to consider risks like pain, nerve damage, bone infection and
failure of bone healing.
"During the lengthening, it was painful," Kelly said. "I've never thought, 'I
don't wanna do this.' There's never been a point where I've wanted to stop,
because I just keep thinking of the end and how it's going to be."
Kelly's leg is now 10 inches longer than it would have been without the
surgeries. Twenty-three-year-old Julie Nichols hopes for similar results.
"I never wanted to opt for amputation," Nichols told Ivanhoe. "It was never in
my heart to do that. I just knew that one day, maybe there would be another
option for me."
She's in for three surgeries and almost a year of therapy, but says her goal
will keep her going.
"I want to run so bad," Nichols said. "After these surgeries, my goal is to run
a marathon."
Dr. Paley has performed over 10,000 limb lengthening procedures and says he is
one of three surgeons in the United States who perform the more complicated
surgeries like Kelly's. Dr. Paley monitors the device's progress with X-rays
every two weeks and says he can slow down or speed up the bone lengthening as
needed.
Source : Ivanhoe Newswire
