Femur Spiral Fracture On a Three Year Old Posted: 07-02-07 01:27am
Could you please help me with a
question/concern? My son is three and
suffered a mid shaft spiral fracture of
his femur. The accident occured in a moon
bounce when a much larger child fell knee
first into his leg. As you can imagine I
was terrified/furious to receive that
phone call.
We took him to the emergency room and the
orthopedic surgeon set his leg without
using any hardware (a nail was considered)
and placed him in a body cast covering his
entire broken leg and half of the other
leg. According to the doctor the break was
sufficiently healed and the cast was
removed at 5 weeks, however his broken leg
is a little over an inch shorter than the
normal left leg. The doctor said that this
is normal and his legs should grow to
equal length over time. Is this really
normal and will it heal to a correct
length?
It isn't that I don't trust the doctor's
judgement, but I am still worried about
how it will grow and his ability to lead a
normal life, playing contact sports, etc.
I am just concerned and I was hoping that
I could get some advice from an outside
source.
After having the cast removed he is unable
to walk without being held up. It is a
pretty heartbreaking hard process for
everyone. What would be a normal recovery
time and how long should it take him to
walk independently. I am taking him to the
YMCA to swim since there would be less
resistance on his leg. No therapy was
assigned because of his age and the idea
that he will work within his own
limitations.
Thank you for taking the time to read my
message and for your future response. I am
just very concerned about my son's well
being and I want to make sure that I am
doing everything I can to help him go back
to leading a healthy active life as soon
as possible.
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konigwolf
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 02 Jul 2007 Posts: 3 Location: australia
Posted: 07-02-07 05:55am
Hi, I understand the your feelings and
frustration, my almost 5 year old broke
his femur mid leg on an angle, 2 days ago.
So we have had a large learning curve. The
inch shorter sounds quite fishy, our
orthapedic doc's and physio both reckon
he'll be up to speed in no time (less than
a month) after the bone is healed (about
4-6 weeks they reckon because of his
faster childhood metabolism). He's
currentley in traction, and sometime in
the next week will be transferred to a
cast (full broken leg, lower abdomin and
upper leg of non broken side) for about 4
weeks. So I hate to say it but it does
sound a bit hinky to me, I'd seriously
consider a second opinion.
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