I’m walking tall at last!
So brave, the little girl, 3, who was born with both legs bent backwards
‘We couldn’t stop the tears’
WHEN Victoria Komada was born with both her legs bent backwards, doctors warned her parents she would probably never walk.
But Marzena Drusewicz, 32, and Dariusz Komada, 41, refused to accept the prognosis and began a £180,000 fundraising campaign to secure their daughter pioneering surgery in America.
Now, after two operations and nine months of physiotherapy in the US, Victoria, three, has not only managed to take her first steps, but is back home in Norwich, running around and playing sport like any other child her age.
Miss Drusewicz said that, after all the worry and heartache, the family were looking forward to ‘starting their lives again’. She added: ‘We were so happy when she took her first steps we started crying.
‘Victoria would cry and scream so much after the operation. But every week she got better and better and now she is not in any pain at all.’
Victoria was born in July 2015 with bilateral tibial hemimelia, a genetic condition which occurs in around one in a million births.
It causes babies to be born with a shortened or absent shin bone. Doctors told Victoria’s parents her best hope was to have a double amputation.
But the couple discovered a specialist private clinic in Florida, run by orthopaedic surgeon, Dror Paley, who believed he could help.
Friends and relatives in Norwich and in Szezcin, Poland, where the family are originally from, climbed mountains, did fun runs and raised money.
Dr Paley told them he could repair Victoria’s left leg but her right would have to be ampuyoungster’s tated above the knee and fitted with a prosthetic.
She had her first nine-hour operation at the US clinic in July last year, when her right leg was removed and pins inserted into her left limb.
Over the following weeks the pins were twisted millimetres each day to straighten the foot. Around two months later, Victoria’s prosthetic leg was fitted and soon afterwards she managed to take her first steps unaided.
Mr Komada, a shop assistant, said: ‘When we saw her standing, it was one of the happiest moments in our lives.
‘We knew that there was still a long way to go, but we couldn’t stop the tears.’
A second operation, in November, involved fusing bones in Victoria’s left leg together to strengthen it.
Since then she has been having intensive physiotherapy, but earlier this week the family were discharged and flew home. They are hoping Victoria will be able to start school in September.
Dr Paley said: ‘We achieved all that we said we would achieve on her. She has a superb result.’