Coping with child's bone disease.Byline: By Jane Picken It can strike any child up to the age of 15 and even leave them in a wheelchair. Health reporter Jane Picken finds out how two families cope with Perthes' disease It started with a slight limp but in less than two days little Luke Haughey was unable to walk. But incredibly Luke, from North Shields Coordinates: North Shields (or locally just Shields) is a town on the north bank of the River Tyne, in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in North East England. It is located eight miles (13 km) east of Newcastle upon Tyne. , was in very little pain and had no explanation for the sudden downturn in his health ( he'd not had any accidents or suffered any injuries. Baffled parents Nancy and John took Luke to North Tyneside North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear in the North East of England. Its seat is at the Town Hall, Wallsend. Created in 1974, the borough lies within the historic county boundaries of Northumberland. District Hospital, but it would be another six months before they got a diagnosis. The onset of Perthes' started when Luke was three years old, and the St Cuthbert's St Cuthberts Catholic Community College of Business and enterprise is a high school situated in St Helens, Merseyside, England. It has been named one of the best high schools in St Helens and has over 900 students. School pupil, now five, has been fighting back since. "It started one weekend and by the second day he couldn't walk ( it was awful to see," said Nancy, 39. "He was still playing with his toys but he couldn't stand up. They initially thought it was a fracture but even with blood tests and X-rays they could not say for sure." Eventually, after another episode where Luke lost the ability to walk, the bone disorder started to show up on X-rays in his right leg and doctors at North Tyneside were able to pin-point the condition as Perthes'. It's estimated that around one in 10,000 children between the ages of two and 15 years develop Perthes' every year in the UK. But it's most common in boys between the ages of four and eight, usually affecting just one of their hips. The condition is essentially a bone disorder caused when the blood flow to the ball and socket joint a joint in which a ball moves within a socket, so as to admit of motion in every direction within certain limits. See also: Ball at the top of the hip stops. The bone of the ball then dies and starts to crumble, ready for new bone to build up again. "We know that all of a sudden the blood to the growing part of the ball in the hip joint stops," said consultant orthopaedic surgeon at North Tyneside Hospital Allan Gayner. "It can restart again and we don't know why any of this happens. "I do see quite a lot of children with Perthes' and it's quite common ( in every junior school you could usually get two children who have it." If the joints affected are not kept flexible they could stiffen up as the ball bone regrows and fuses leaving surgery as an only option to repair any deformity Deformity See also Lameness. Calmady, Sir Richard born without lower legs. [Br. Lit.: Sir Richard Calmady, Walsh Modern, 84] Carey, Philip embittered young man with club foot seeks fulfillment. [Br. Lit. . Nancy estimates it could take up to 18 months for Luke's bones to repair, and it's likely the bright five-year-old will develop arthritis in a few years. It's put a stop to Luke charging about the school yard with his pals and taking part in some playtime games, but the precautions are necessary if his bones are going to recover. "We were already working with a physiotherapist physiotherapist /phys·io·ther·a·pist/ (-ther´ah-pist) physical therapist. physiotherapist physical therapist. but Luke has mainly been able to stop the condition getting any worse through swimming," explained Nancy, a health and safety consultant and life coach. "He's very active but we have to be careful with what he does. "Luke's not allowed to run or jump so instead we go swimming two or three times a week and do stretching exercises twice a day. "It's important that when Luke's hip ball bone starts to grow again it remains in the socket and exercise will help that. The swimming has worked out really well because he is actually very fit now. "On the surface he looks like a normal little boy, it's only when you see the X-rays that things look different." Reassuringly Perthes' can be overcome and 10-year-old Jack Johnson Jack Johnson may refer to:
Jack was diagnosed with the condition at the age of four after a school health visitor noticed his back was curving to the right, and the youngster started complaining of pains in his hip. Parents George and Ostell took him to North Tyneside General Hospital North Tyneside General Hospital is part of Northumbria NHS Trust. It is closely associated with Wansbeck General Hospital in Ashington. It is the main hospital serving the North Tyneside area. It is located on Rake Lane, near New York in North Shields. when the pain became worse and a quick thinking nurse spotted the signs. The diagnosis meant 12 weeks in traction at hospital and a further three years in a brace designed to keep his legs at a 45 degree angle. "It sounds like it would be really restrictive but Jack did whatever he wanted from riding a bike to climbing trees," said dad George, 43, who works as a project manager. "We've tried to keep life as normal and as active as possible for Jack. Since the brace came off you would never know anything had been wrong with him, and he has made a good recovery. "When the doctors first mentioned Perthes' we had never heard of it, but all you can really do is allow your child to be as active as possible." |
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