Jack's story

 Jack's right clubfoot after 3 months of traditional casting in Lithuania

Our son Jacob was born in 18 08 2003 with right bilateral clubfoot. From his birth he was unsuccessfully treated using regular serial casting in our hometown Kaunas.

Since the treatment results had been poor, when our son was 2 months old I started browsing the Internet looking for any clubfoot information. It was then I found out about prof. Ponseti and his unique method of clubfoot treatment. It was hard to believe that all these baby photos in Dr. Ponseti’s website were real. The feet which looked so fixed and turned in were corrected to the opposite direction using just five plaster casts. To me it was like a miracle.

When Jack was 2.5 months we went to a bigger clinic to get the second opinion about the condition of our son’s foot. The two best orthopedic surgeons and casting specialists told us that it was about 90% we had to go in for the operation. Before the operation we were told to continue with casting until our son is at least 6 months old and was able to get through this big surgical invasion. At that time I had already gathered a lot of information about Ponseti method and was willing to try it. Unfortunately, two years ago the local doctors were not able to offer us Ponseti treatment; I had become so enthusiastic about.

My husband was still skeptical and being a registered nurse himself he tried to convince me to trust the doctors here. But it was too late. I didn’t want to give up my idea of going abroad and trying Ponseti. I knew I have to try Ponseti because if I didn’t, I would never be able to forgive myself. I also knew that I would not let any doctor who is not a Ponseti professional to manipulate my son’s foot, because I was convinced that the incorrect manipulation could bring irreversible and unwanted results.

The determination to go for Ponseti was strengthened after I had received a telephone call from Dr. Ponseti who had examined the digital photos of our son’s foot and shared his preliminary opinion that the problem could be treated in two months using his method. The doctor was even so kind to recommend us a very good Ponseti specialist in Germany, Dr. M. F. Sinclair.

After a few weeks of arrangements and e-mail conversations with Dr.Sinclair, we soon headed to Hamburg Altonaer Krankenhaus where we were offered the treatment we were looking for. I must say I trusted our German doctor from our first conversation, he was really using Ponseti method and even after the first cast had been removed I immediately knew the difference! The foot was almost straight!

When Jack was three months old and after four weeks of successful Ponseti casting he had to have a percutaneus tenotomy (Achilles tendon was cut to lower the heel) and it was more like a medical procedure than an operation. I was allowed to stay in the casting room and hold my son’s hand when the doctor made a tiny incision and put in two small stitches. The whole procedure lasted about 15 minutes including local anesthesia.

After the tenotomy Jack was left in cast for three weeks. When the last cast had been removed our son was put into a DBB (special brace to keep the feet in the correct position) and wore it 24 hours during the period of three months. It didn’t cause him much trouble because from his birth Jokubas was used to have his feet fixated.

Jack's first DBB 

Jacob today 

Jacob is five years old. Nobody can tell he had a clubfoot. His right foot is fully functional and has never caused him or us any problems. Jack loves cycling and whole summer he hardly gets off his bike. This year Jack started basketball training together with his older brother.

We still do regular check ups of Jack's right foot at the local Ponseti specialist and continue informing clubfoot parents in the East about this effective clubfoot treatment method.