AMPUTEE BOY HAS OP TO GIVE MOBILITY Brave Tony’s life-changing operation to help him walk
HIS incredible bravery and efforts to raise £2million for charity inspired the nation.
But now double amputee Tony Hudgell is embarking on his greatest challenge – learning to walk again.
The nine-year-old, who lost his legs after heartbreaking abuse as a baby, has had complex surgery to help him use his prosthetics without crutches.
Adoptive mum Paula last night hailed the procedure as “life-changing”.
She added: “The operation went well and the surgeon is happy for now.
“[Tony] is feeling positive and he’s doing incredibly well.”
During the operation – Tony’s 28th – surgeons removed his thigh bone and reinserted it back to front.
Medics say it should encourage his left leg to grow to the same size as the right, stabilising his hip and letting him walk more easily.
Gruelling
The schoolboy will have a frame called a fixator cage attached to his limb for up to a year, meaning he will need a wheelchair.
The gruelling procedure also involves realigning his thigh bone weekly, leaving him in constant pain.
Just days after the operation, brave Tony has already managed to stand and walk a few steps.
Paula, 56, said: “He always pushes himself further than he really should. He got up on his other prosthetic and was standing on the frame for the first time on Tuesday, and on Wednesday he walked a bit up the corridor.
“Obviously it’s early days, and it depends how the bones heal, but we are hoping that nature works properly.
“The first few days were really, really tough for him. We had a lot of problems getting the pain under control.
“But in true Tony style he bounced back and was keen to do some physio.”
She added: “He wants to try and run but that’s out of the question at the moment. He’s taking everything in his stride. He blows us away. We are very, very proud of him.”
Tony’s birth parents Anthony Smith, then 46, and Jody Simpson, 24, abused him so badly that by six weeks old he had multiple fractures to his limbs.
The evil pair left it 10 days before seeking medical help, by which time Tony had developed multiple organ failure and septicaemia.
Staff at Evelina London Children’s Hospital saved the tot’s life, but he had to have both legs amputated at the knee when he was four.
Paula admits it’s heartbreaking to see Tony suffer, saying: “The pain is still a lot, which it’s going to be because the rods are essentially going through open wounds. We hate seeing him in pain. The fact that it was inflicted on him – that he was born perfectly healthy and now has to endure this – is so unfair. It really is a rollercoaster of emotions.”
Tony’s operation on March 14 was performed at Sheffield Children’s
Hospital – one of only
two places in the world equipped to do it. Paula and husband Mark, who have eight other kids, will have to make a 400-mile round trip from home in Kings Hill, Kent, every week so surgeons can realign Tony’s thigh.
After 12 months the youngster will need another operation to remove the fixator cage. He may need the same operation on his right leg in future, plus more surgery to reverse his thigh bone and stop it growing the wrong way when he reaches 16 or 17.
Paula said: “[It] will be tough. But we want to give him every possible opportunity. Not only will this hopefully enable him to walk on prosthetics without crutches, but it will also keep his posture correct – because his hip was dislocated so it was throwing his back and everything else out as well.”
Paula is hopeful that Tony, who is on strong pain medication, might be well enough to come home this weekend. But the Pride of Britain winner must be back in Sheffield by Wednesday for his first weekly visit.
In between these appointments, Paula and Mark will have to clean the pins going into Tony’s legs and adjust the frame four times a day. The
Hudgells are trying to raise cash to support the costs over the next year.
Paula, who recently had chemotherapy for bowel cancer, said: “He’s going to need weekly appointments, so it will be very intense. We’ve also got to get a wheelchair adapted, and these things are really expensive.”
In 2020, to thank doctors who saved his life as a baby, Tony set out to raise £500,000 for the Evelina by walking 10km on his prosthetic legs – but ended up raising £1.6million.
He has now raised more than £2million for charity in total.
Paula said: “It all goes over his head.
He’s so grounded. But seeing other children benefit from his hard work makes it all worthwhile for Tony.”
In 2018 Tony’s birth parents were convicted of causing physical harm to a child and each jailed for 10 years – the maximum at that time.
Through Paula’s tireless campaigning and the introduction of Tony’s Law in 2022, the maximum jail term is now 14 years, and for causing or allowing the death of a child it’s now life. Smith and Simpson were due
for automatic prison release in 2022, until then Justice Secretary Dominic Raab used new powers to keep dangerous offenders behind bars.
His intervention regarding Simpson was later ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal and she was released last April, but Smith remains in prison.