Patient Stories

Taiyara’s Story

Taiyara was born in Thailand. She was breech the last couple months of the pregnancy and delivered by an emergency c-section. When she was born both of her legs were completely blue which promoted the doctor to request she be checked by a specialist. A specialist checked her legs with an ultrasound 3 days after birth. She was diagnosed with DDH – Both legs were out of the hip socket. Pretty scary not knowing anything about this condition, the doctor first tried to manipulate her legs back into the socket, then checked with a ultrasound – No luck, could not get her legs into the socket. The next step was to wear a pavlik harness for a month.

She wore the pavlik harness 24-7 for 1 month, we went for 1 month check-up and the ultrasound showed both sides were still out. The doctor tried again to manipulate her legs into the socket – Again, no luck. We discontinued using the Harness at that time.

The next step was to try a traction method which per the doctor is the last option before surgery… we tried the traction method, she was in the hospital for 2 weeks. Tried again to manipulate her legs into the socket, again did not work. We tried 1 more week of traction in the hospital, still could not get her legs back in the right position. At this point the doctor is now indicating surgery is the next step – We were scared!

We saw a few doctors for 2nd, 3rd opinions and got conflicting diagnoses. One doctor indicated both sides were in the socket – Another doctor indicated both sides were out. We were confused but ended up going with the initial specialist who had checked her since birth. DDH is not common in Thailand, we later found out that the doctor we were seeing is the #1 specialist in all of Thailand for this condition – He has 15 years experience treating this condition and said Taiyara’s condition was the worst he has seen in all the 15 years. Time was running out so we decided to follow his recommendation. He indicated he was 100% confident the hips are dislocated and told us to just follow him.

Taiyara is 2½ months old, she was put to sleep and had closed reduction surgery to release the groin muscle on both sides. After the surgery the doctor indicated he could only get the reduction on one leg and the other leg was still dislocated – Devastating news but I guess one side being in is better than no side in. She had a cast from the waist down to her toes.

We went back in for check up to see the MRI results…..MRI results show both sides are out again – We were devastated again!! The next step was to take her cast off and put her in the traction again for 2 more weeks, then do another closed reduction surgery and try to get the reduction. The doctor said that if it did not work the next step would be an open reduction surgery but she was too young and had to be at least 6 months old.

We tried the closed reduction surgery for the 2nd time. This time when the doctor came out he indicated that he successfully got the reduction on both sides. She had a cast from the waist down and had to wear it for 4 months – every 3/4wks we had to change the cast and check her legs with an ultrasound. The ultrasound results have all been positive so far, each time we checked both sides were in.

She got her cast off – finally! Confirmed again with a MRI and both sides still in. Right now she has to wear a brace for 3 more months – Much better now – we can take the brace off, take her in the swimming pool, give her a bath, she’s starting to roll around a little.

In September we have to go for the first check up since her cast was removed and hopefully she can stop wearing the brace – Will be just in time for her to start crawling…