THE SPORTING CHAMP WHO PROVES LEG-LENGTHENING DOES WORK
THE last patient with PFFD to receive funding for leglengthening from the NHS is believed to be ten-year-old Daniel Rigby, whose parents were told three weeks after his birth in London that amputation was the best option.
His mother Kristen says: ‘Daniel had a normal foot and lower leg, and we weren’t content with this option.’
After finding Dr Paley’s name in online research, she emailed him Daniel’s X-ray, and he saw him just after his first birthday. Daniel’s surgeon, Peter Calder, a consultant at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, supported a request for NHS funding, and in January 2010 Daniel had his first surgery in the US. ‘He had two major hip surgeries funded on the NHS, as well as one minor procedure,’ says Mrs Rigby. ‘The NHS paid for Daniel’s accommodation and flight for the first surgery, but not the second.’
The family moved abroad, and Daniel has since had two leg-lengthenings at the Paley Institute funded by insurance. ‘He has gained 6in and has two more lengthenings to go to achieve the other 6in, says Mrs Rigby.
Although he still needs a prosthetic, Daniel has become a super-achiever in sport in Sydney, where the family now lives. He swims and plays football, hockey and cricket.
Mrs Rigby says: ‘ When he was born, his thigh was virtually non-existent, and now he has a beautiful long thigh made of his own flesh and blood and a fully-working knee, ankle and foot, which, had we gone with amputation, would not have existed.’