A Long Journey for Treatment in Madagascar
Learning how to cope with clubfoot.
A farming family from the countryside near Toamasina, Madagascar, welcomed their second daughter, Sania, to the world in February 2016. The doctor who delivered Sania noticed that her left foot was turned in, and pointed it out to her parents. Sania’s mother, Lienne, recalls “I was worried and I cried when I saw that her foot was not normal. I was afraid that she would never receive treatment.”
Finding treatment in Madagascar.
Lienne learned that treatment was available at the public hospital, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Toamasina (CHUT), but was cautiously hopeful. Lienne made the journey into Toamasina when Sania was 2-months old. It was a 3 hour trip by foot, followed by 3 hours in a taxi-brousse. Lienne’s sister-in-law accompanied her to the clinic to ask if Sania could be treated. Lienne remembers “I was nervous the first day we went to the clinic, but so happy when they told me Sania’s foot could be corrected!”
A bright new future.
Sania’s treatment began in April 2016, and after 4 plaster casts to gradually correct the clubbed position, her foot was ready for a tenotomy in early May. She is now out of her casts and will just wear the brace at night now. Lienne looks forward to a changed future for her daughter, and plans for Sania to attend school just like her 9 year old sister.
