Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The first time a mother sees her child walk, that
child is usually about a year old.
But now, new technology is allowing one mother
to see her teenage daughter take her first step after
a near fatal car crash.
Doreen Gentzler is here now with more on her story.
Hi Doreen.
Hi Jim. For certain types of leg
fractures and deformities, the healing process can
be tough, requiring major surgeries, long recovery
times and long-lasting effects.
In tonight's News For Your Health, meet one Maryland
teenager whose doctors used cutting edge computer
technology to help her walk again, and we get
to watch her take those first few steps.
A car stopped abruptly in front of me and it was
either him or go, try to go around, and I thought
I had enough room to go around.
But Meghan Bryant, who was then 16 years old,
didn't have enough room.
Her back tires got caught in gravel and her truck
flipped over twice.
Rescue crews had to cut her out of the car.
She couldn't feel the left side of her body and was
airlifted to Baltimore Shock Trauma.
I was told that they, at that time they didn't know
what it was.
It could be a brain injury, it could be a stroke.
She eventually started to move her left hand,
but her leg remained motionless.
Her muscles in her shin and calf had contracted
leaving her foot stuck in a down position making
her unable to walk.
So, just like you might in a high-heeled shoe where
the foot is downward, she was not able to lift it
back up, so trying to walk basically on her tip-toes
at all times.
Bryant and her Georgetown University Hospital
Orthopedic Surgeon,
Dr. Francis McGuigan tried physical therapy,
specialized casts, even surgery; but nothing worked.
So they took a new approach.
We're doing a minimally invasive surgery.
It is computer-assisted so that we can get much
more exact than we can with just in the operating
room in a few minutes to an hour.
Doctors attach this metal cage called a Taylor Spacial
Frame, to the leg bone.
A special computer program then figures out precisely
how to adjust the cage so that the foot holds
in a normal position.
The bones and muscles are then able to realign
themselves over time.
It can take anywhere from a few week s to months.
We just want it on long enough so that the soft
tissue can develop a bit of memory so that she won't
go back into the same exact position that she was
before.
Doctors have been using similar cages for years,
but they use complex math equations to figure out
how to position the cage.
Doctors needed to make many adjustments to get
it right and errors were common.
Bryant wore the cage for 5 weeks, then another cast
for an additional 3.
She was wheelchair bound during that time, even
for her senior prom.
But today, doctors are cutting off that cast and
in just a few minutes they'll learn whether she'll
be able to walk.
With the help of a brace, Meghan Bryant can now walk
on crutches.
I'm doing good. I feel like I'm normal
again.
(Laughing). I'm really excited.
McGuigan believes that with more physical therapy,
she'll be walking without help very soon.
Her goal is to walk at her high school graduation
in 2 weeks.
Because I've been able to do it for such a long
time, and now it's like, I've convinced it to moving
on so like I'm moving on with this, too.
We think she's going to make it.
Dr. Francis McGuigan also
told us they're using this type of computer- assisted
surgery with some of the injured troops coming back
from Iraq.
It had a lot of success with some of the types
of leg injuries that they're seeing among those injured
soldiers.
Wendy, Jim. Yeah, that's wonderful
to see technology put to that kind of use,
great indeed.