U.S. surgeons help 6-year old Palestinian boy to walk for first time

Hadi Abukhadra of the West Bank has been walking for a month after extensive surgery and therapy to reform his legs that were disfigured by a crippling disease.

by John Tyburski

Copyright © Daily Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

First published at Daily Digest News on June 4, 2014

The physicians that practice modern medicine are triumphant once again as they give the gift of walking to a young Palistinian boy crippled and disfigured by disease. Six-year old Hadi Abukhadra, from the Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank region of Palestine, suffered from arthrogryposis from birth. The condition caused his knees to bend in the wrong direction and his feet to face the wrong direction. He never walked before; he only crawled or was carried by others.

Arthrogryposis is a congenital condition that leads to contracture or curvature of two or more joints and weakening and fibrosis of the muscles around the affected joints. It is a rare condition occurring in from one in 3,000 live births worldwide to as few as one in 12,000 live births (European data). Clubfoot is a related condition in which only one joint is affected.

The Abukhadra family received assistance from the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, an organization that paid for his surgeries and related treatments and care in the U.S. The procedures that eventually allowed Hadi to walk for the first time in his life were led by orthopaedic surgeon Lawrence Rinsky of Stanford University School of Medicine.

The procedures included a series of casts on Hadi’s feet to gradually lengthen ligaments, nerves, muscles, and tendons. His Achilles tendons were lengthened and middle bones of the ankles were removed by surgery.

“His knees were also treated with a surgery and a series of casts to slightly lengthen the muscles that straighten his knees, allowing slightly more bending and preventing hyperextension,” said Rinsky.

Hadi completed extensive physical therapy at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.

“He has to basically relearn how to stand and relearn how to balance,” said one of the therapists.

Hadi’s first words after his casts were removed were, “Thank God,” and “Thank you,” to Dr. Rinsky.