Woman grows 7 inches in height after 2 years of surgery

Main Category: Pain / Anesthetics
Article Date: 15 Feb 2004 - 0:00 PDT


A woman went through two years of surgeries and therapy (and unbearable pain) in order to lengthen her legs.

Ohio (USA) - A woman has just completed a two-year procedure that surgically broke her bowed legs. They were then stretched and straightened. This must have been an incredibly painful ordeal.

She had always wanted to be taller. She was 4ft 3 inches tall and would have done anything to be 4ft 10 inches tall.

Christy Ruhe's legs were severely bowed. She was born with achondroplasia (form of dwarfism). At 5 years of age surgeons broke her hips and realigned them. However, her legs continued to grow bent outward at the knees.

Her pediatric orthopaedic surgeon tried to put her off trying to lengthen her legs. The Little People of America say that the risks of long-term nerve and vascular damage are too great.

However, Christy seemed intent on going through with it.

None of her family is a dwarf (parents and one sister).

Throughout her life she had felt the burden of being different from other people. The staring of strangers, the lagging behind the group (when walking).

'I always felt like, why do I have to explain this?' she said.

When Christy was 22 she got in touch with Dror Paley, a doctor at the International Center for Limb Lengthening.

In 2001 Christy underwent the first limb-lengthening surgery on her left leg. The following year her right leg was operated on as well.

As part of the procedure, when her leg was broken, the shin bones and femurs automatically generated new bone. As they healed they were pulled apart to make them longer.

Her surgery was covered by insurance (typical cost is $200,000).

Dr. Paley cut holes into Christy's leg. Then he screwed rods into the bone. He placed seven rods in her thigh and five in her shin.

Each rod was one foot long (half the rod stuck out from her skin). Dr. Paley attached the rods to a graphite brace. Christy had to crank the brace (to stretch her legs).

The pain was something most of us could never imagine.

After the operation Christy had to move around in a wheelchair. Four times a day she had to use an Allen wrench to turn the brace and stretch her leg.

In spring of 2003, a year and a half after Christy's first surgery, a chronic infection developed around one rod in the right leg, which had been operated on six months previously. The rod had to be removed.

They had to remove the rod without general anesthesia. The pain was a nightmare. Christy had many more problems (which most of us would never be able to bear). But eventually, she got there.

On her 25th birthday party everyone celebrates the end of procedures. It was all a success and she has gained seven inches in height.

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