After 20-Year Search, LI Woman Finds Doctor Who Can Help Her at Hospital for Special Surgery Hospital for Special Surgery - Long Island FREE Press at LongIsland.com, 02-03-2009
It took a Long Island woman more than 20 years to find a surgeon who could fix a problem that caused shame and embarrassment from the time she was a child. Her search ended at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in Manhattan, where a highly skilled orthopedic surgeon was able to correct the toe deformities that had plagued her for so many years.
When Susan was 10 years old, another child made fun of her toes, calling her ??crooked toes.? The middle toe on Susan??s left foot was much shorter than her other toes and curled up. On her right foot, the fourth toe near her pinkie was also malformed. ??After that, I wouldn??t let anybody see my feet,? Susan says. ??As a child, I was always afraid people would make fun of me.?
For more than 20 years, the only people who saw Susan??s feet were doctors, as she searched in vain for a surgeon who could fix the problem. She hid it from almost everyone else, even her immediate family.
Keeping it a secret took some work. Susan has always loved the beach. She lives near the water on Long Island??s south shore and also has a summer home in Westhampton Beach. ??I practically live at the beach,? she says. She always buried her feet in the sand or wore rubber water shoes to hide her toes. Sandals were out of the question. Until she met Dr. Robert Rozbruch at Hospital for Special Surgery.
After seeing 10 doctors who said they could do nothing for her, she finally found someone who could correct the deformities and restore her confidence. Dr. Rozbruch, chief of the Limb Lengthening and Deformity Service at HSS, is one of a handful of orthopedic surgeons worldwide performing the kind of highly specialized surgery Susan was seeking. HSS is one of only two hospitals nationwide with a center dedicated to correcting deformities affecting the upper and lower extremities and limb lengthening. Patients come to Dr. Rozbruch from around the country and around the world.
Over the years, Susan says many doctors dismissed her concerns as trivial. One orthopedic surgeon suggested amputating the deformed toes. ??He said that way, if someone looked fast at my feet, they would not notice something was different.?
??I would have gone to the ends of the earth to get the problem corrected. I was desperate to find someone to help me,? Susan says. She remembered her grandmother had a knee replacement at HSS many years ago. She called the hospital??s Physician Referral Line, and they gave her Dr. Rozbruch??s phone number.
??I??ll never forget, he walked in the room and said, ??I can fix that, no problem,? Susan recalls. ??I felt such a sense of relief, I wanted to cry with happiness. It was my dream to be able to walk on the beach and leave a normal footprint in the sand. And finally get to wear open-toe shoes and get a pedicure for the first time?
Susan??s malformed toes resulted from a short metatarsal bone in each foot, which she was born with, according to Dr. Rozbruch. He also found a misalignment of her tibias (the leg bone between the knee and the ankle), which led to bowlegs.
Dr. Rozbruch says problems such as bowlegs and knock knees put more pressure on one side of the knee joint. This can cause discomfort and limit certain activities, and it often leads to early arthritis. He found that both her toes and legs were causing problems for Susan. In addition to the way it looked, she could not be as active as she would have liked, she had trouble buying shoes, and she was developing pain on one side of her knee.
Dr. Rozbruch treated both problems using a similar technique. One goal was to correct the misalignment of her tibia bones to make her legs straight. The other was to reconstruct her short toes to give them a normal appearance.
Performing a procedure called an osteotomy, Dr. Rozbruch used a minimally invasive technique to cut the bone in each affected area. The incision was only half an inch long. An external frame called a fixator was applied to her legs and feet after surgery.
??We use an external apparatus that works almost like braces,? Dr. Rozbruch explains. ??By teaching patients how to make very small daily adjustments to the frame, this gradually changes the position of the bone, like braces that gradually move crooked teeth. It can either lengthen or straighten the bone, depending on the goal.? Patients usually spend one or two nights in the hospital.
??In the case of the bowleg, we make an angular correction, and in the case of the short toe, we lengthen the bone by creating a space. Bone has the ability to regenerate itself, so new bone will grow in the gap. This is how we can lengthen the bone or correct a deformity,? he explains. The process usually takes a few weeks, and most patients have little if any pain, Dr. Rozbruch says. Susan says she had no pain to speak of, and her two teenage daughters offered much support after the surgery. Her toes now look perfect and she no longer has bowlegs.
??It was the best thing I??ve ever done for myself,? says Susan, who now goes for a pedicure every week and delights in wearing open-toe shoes. ??It was life-altering. It definitely changed my quality of life.?
??When we fix these problems, we really transform peoples?? lives, and it??s the combination of improving both function and body image,? Dr. Rozbruch says. ??People not only look better. They have less pain, a decreased chance of developing arthritis in the joint, they can engage in more athletic activities, and it leads to much happier patients.?
Susan is clearly one of them. She is an athlete who enjoys running, cycling and skiing. A couple of months ago, at age 43, she completed her first New York City marathon. She is also learning how to surf along with her two daughters.
For more information, visit www.hss.edu/longisland.
For more information, please contact: Phyllis Fisher
Phone Number : 212-606-1197
Long Island Advertising
Interested in advertising in the Long Island News & Press Release section?
Call 631-406-4410 or fill out our online advertising information form.
Advertising
Print This Long Island Press Release
Send to a Friend