29th May, 2019
Image: NHS
Dr Peace Amaraegbulam, a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia, has advised parents to seek early medical care for children with club-floot.
She gave this advice in Umuahia, while speaking on proper care for such children.
Amaraegbulam said that club-foot is a deformity whose cause could be medically explained.
She said: “The society generally believes that if something has gone wrong, that Satan has done overtime.It is not true, it has explanation in medicine.
“When a child gets club-floot and the parents seek care early, it gets easily treated.
“But when they don’t care until the child is two years or more and continues to grow, the structures begin to contract and it gets more difficult to treat.
“At this point, the treatment may require some form of surgery in order to be cured.”
The consultant advised that parents should go to the hospital and seek medical care the moment they notice any abnormality in their newborn’s feet.
She also advised the gynaecologists, midwives and all those invloved in child delivery, to do a proper examination on newborn and note any deformity the child might have immediately.
“At any age, club-floot can be corrected, but as the child gets older, the correction may require surgery,” she said.
Amaraegbulam disclosed that club-foot treatment was free at FMC Umuahia, and urged parents to bring their patients to the centre.
“The only thing the parents have to pay for is the initial folder. They don’t pay for the supply or any other thing, “she said.
Amaraegbulam, who is the Founding Chairman of Straight Child Foundation, an NGO, said her organisation was responsible for the free treatment.
She said her NGO was also getting support from Miracle Feet, a non-profit organisation that supports the care of the club-floot in developing countries.
“Miracle Feet pays for the supply so that the patients don’t have to pay again,” she said.
Amaraegbulam said that her NGO recently organised an advanced non-surgical club-foot treatment provider course for medical experts at FMC, Umuahia and Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba.
She said the essence of the training was to equip the experts with the relevant knowledge about club-floot care.