Patient Testimonials

Teresa

"Just turn the rod." It was a simple fact of life for Teresa when she was 8 years old. Teresa was wearing an external fixator on her left leg with a metal rod inserted into the bone that needed to be turned four times a day. Teresa even brought the wrench to school for the midday turn. Her friends also took the apparatus in stride, and stayed by her side during recess when she couldn't go out on the playground. Eventually she was out of the wheelchair and off the crutches, and managed to do a lot of her usual activities like swimming, while wearing the fixator for eleven months after surgery.

Teresa was diagnosed at birth with a leg discrepancy - a quite common occurrence. As she was growing her pediatrician treated her with shoe lifts to help level out her gait. But Teresa's difference in length leg was more than the acceptable range and that was enough to warrant specialty care. She was referred to Drs. David P. Roye, Jr. and Michael G. Vitale who performed a leg-lengthening operation in which the outer portion of the bone is cut and an external fixation device is attached to either side of the cut bone with pins through the skin. The fixator is gradually adjusted so the leg can be lengthened over time.

When Teresa had a growth spurt three years later her legs became uneven again. Since Teresa was approaching puberty when her growth would stop, there was little time to make the necessary correction. This time Dr. Vitale decided to slow the growth of her "good" leg to allow her left leg time to "catch up." This was accomplished by "scraping" the growth plate in her right leg. One month after surgery, eleven year old Teresa was back in the pool and looking forward to resuming her figure skating routines.

"She's been a trouper," describes Ann Marie, Teresa's mother. "She's always been a determined little girl, and that spunk really helped." When the doctors discussed surgery and told her that they see better results when their patients are younger, she found it hard to believe. "But they were right," said Ann Marie. She healed quickly and doesn't remember any hardship through the procedures. "In fact she loved the hospital stay because they had arts and crafts and delivered her favorites foods." Ann Marie also felt grateful for their good fortune in finding these doctors, being treated with such care, and knowing that Teresa's condition would heal.