A five-centimetre journey back to school

“A nine-year-old girl who had stopped going to school for almost a year because of a simple fall from her school bus debilitated her, made her lose all her hope in life. I remember when she first came to me, she probably thought that this is just another doctor she is going to and this is not going to help — because before that, they had already been to a big hospital in Jabalpur, then Nagpur, then Raipur, before coming to Ambikapur for treatment.

What began as a small injury had turned into a serious infection in her leg. Her knee joint was completely compromised, with no cartilage left to mobilize it. The bigger problem was that her leg had shortened by almost five centimetres, with daily pus discharge from her left thigh.

Treatment required removing the infected tissue and reconstructing the limb, followed by the slow process of lengthening with an Ilizarov ring fixator. Because she was so young, her body accepted the process easily, and the bone healed well — within three months, the external fixator was removed.

Now, when she comes back for follow-up, she’s back in school. There’s a different spark in her eyes. Now she smiles, and she has stories of her own to tell me.”