bobby

Bobby's Page

Ok, this is my little brother, Bobby (AKA Bubba). He is 15 years old and a high school freshman. He's a goofy young man that you'll never forget if you meet him. He was born with a disability called PFFD, Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency. This basically means that he was born with shortened or missing bones in his legs. Here's the breakdown: In his right leg there is no femur, no knee, and no tibia. In his left leg there is only 3 inches of his femur, and then the rest of that leg is normal. There is no bone connection between his legs and his hips, it is all muscle. He is an amazing kid... you wouldn't believe the things that he can do. When he was born my parents had several choices: they could amputate and he'd have to use prosthetics his whole life or they could leave it alone and let him adapt as he grew up. Thankfully, they decided just to let it be. There was one doctor who tried to tell mom and dad that he'd never walk. Well, Bobby has proven that theory wrong and then some! Bobby not only has been able to walk, but he rides his bike, played baseball, played basketball, wrestled, played soccer, is on the golf team, helps around the farm, climbs trees, and now is a member of the junior high's track and field team, thowing shot and disc. He has quite a strong sense of determination - it takes a lot to stop him when he puts his mind to something!

Last year Bobby went through a bone-lengthening process. His right leg was 6 inches shorter than his left leg and it was time to do something to correct it. Bone lengthening is a very painful process. They go in, cut your bone (in this case, the fibula) apart so that it is in two pieces, apply some growth-stimulating stuff on the cut ends, place pins above and below the break in the bone, and attach those pins to the contraption you see in the picture above. This contraption includes little motors (the square boxes) which slowly pull the two section of bone apart. This is where the pain comes in - all of the muscles, ligaments, tendons, skin, etc. are being pulled and stretched. By this process Bobby's right leg was increased in length by 5 1/2 inches. After the actual lengthening was done, he had to have a cast put on his leg around the pins in order to stabilize his leg as the bone finished growing back together and solidifying. These pictures show Bobby right after the surgery to begin the lengthening, about halfway through the lengthening, and at the end, when they removed the motors, but before they put his cast on. He has since learned to walk again (he was in a wheel chair during lengthening) and has had one more surgery since the lengthening in order to correct some problems in his foot due to the lengthening.

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