A Note of Thanks from a Grateful Clubfoot Mom in Uganda
This letter was sent to the clubfoot care providers at MiracleFeet-supported Mulago Clubfoot Clinic in Uganda. It was written by Nambatya, mother to Eliajah.
26th February 2018
I am a mother of a child with clubfoot. His name is Eliajah and he is being treated from Mulago clubfoot clinic. The treating officers have told me that we have completed phase one of the entire treatment course. Today, he is starting the phase of maintaining the correction that has been achieved. They have given us a brace. I am so grateful to all of them.
I and my husband brought our son to Mulago for treatment. We do mixed farming for our living. Eliajah is our first born, therefore has no siblings. He is the first known member of our family to have clubfoot. I had never seen this. I and my husband asked many of our family members to find out whether there has been any member in the family with clubfoot and there was none.
Eliajah was born at Nkozi Hospital on 23rd December 2017. It is some 80 km or so west of Kampala. I had gone to deliver from there such that I could be nursed by my mother. Immediately after delivery, I was shown my child. It was a baby boy. The joy of delivering a live baby was cut short on realizing that my child’s feet were deformed. I had never seen this. I communicated to my husband who was in Kampala. We stay at Kikoni, Makerere, a few kilometres from Kampala city centre.
We decided that I cut short my stay in the village such that I come to Kampala and we start on the treatment of our son. We decided to hide the child away from our visitors such that they don’t see the deformed feet of our newly born son.
We did not go Mulago hospital immediately because of the festive season. We waited until it was over and we reported there on 4th January 2018.
At the Mulago clubfoot clinic, we were warmly received. What made us a bit comfortable is the many other children we found in the clinic. Our hopes were raised as there were many babies with well-corrected feet. At first we had thought that maybe they had come for treatment of other illnesses. We were told that this clubfoot clinic is for only one condition and that is clubfoot. They examined the child and told us that the condition is called clubfoot. That much as it has no known cause, the treatment available is very effective and that Eliajah will end up with well-corrected feet. They promised us that this will be achieved in around 6 to 8 weeks.
They also told us that our son may have a simple surgical procedure as part of the correction.
They also promised us that our son will be provided with an abduction brace, which they showed us. They told us that he will put on this type of brace for up to four years, but with periodical reviews. We started the treatment on 4th January 2018. The first plaster showed a great change. This made us very happy. Our hopes were further raised that we shall be out of this clinic soon. We have been going there every week for now six weeks. One month after the serial casts the procedure they called tenotomy was done on our son. Three weeks later, today our son is given the brace they promised from the beginning.
We are very grateful to the staff of Mulago clubfoot clinic for their care and successful treatment. We believe our son will grow up with good feet and freely play with his peers.
Signed,
Nambatya (Mother) and Kagoda (Father)
