Setting futures straight
Did you know the disability we treat the most is skeletal fluorosis? This condition is much less common globally than, say, clubfoot or clefts - but in Northern Tanzania, the dangerously high levels of fluoride that naturally occur in the groundwater mean we see a heartbreaking number of children affected.
Our bones are filled with a matrix, which makes them light but strong. Fluoride eats away that matrix, hollowing them out.
At the same time, it calcifies on the outside, making the bone harder and heavier. The result is weighty but weak bones - which begin to bend and bow over time, leaving children in pain and unable to walk properly.
Often, these children’s hips and ankles are aligned, but their knees bow outwards or bend inwards.
To correct this, surgeons perform a wedge osteotomy.
This is a procedure in which a small wedge of bone is removed, bringing the knee back into alignment with the hip and ankle.
Recovery is a journey. After surgery, children spend six weeks in casts.
In the first four weeks, we support them with tailored, bed-based rehabilitation.
The next phase focuses on getting them back on their feet, teaching them to walk and exercise while they’re still in their casts.
Even once the casts are off, many still walk by swinging their hips instead of bending their knees, not trusting that it’s possible to move normally without pain.
We work with each child on knee flexion and gait training.
Soon they discover they can move freely, as though fluorosis had never affected them at all.
Watching a child go from near immobility to walking, running, playing football, and dancing is nothing short of extraordinary.
It’s a transformation that not only restores their body, but their future.
There’s little that’s more rewarding than knowing you’ve helped someone step into the healthy, happy life they deserved all along.