Re: 's Dr. Ponseti Essay REVISED.doc

[Guest guest]

,

I can't answer the rest of the questions, but as far as your photos I can

help a bit with that. If your photos are not .jpeg's all you have to do is

change them to jpeg's. Irfanview (www.irfanview.com) can change them

easily. Download the program (it's freeware and a very good photo editing

program) and open the photo you want in the program. If you tell your

puter to associate all image files with irfanview during setup you'll see

that your photos have a red splatty image on them indicating that they're

irfanview files. Basically that means when you double click on the photo

it'll open in irfanview automatically. You can still open the photos in

other software programs (right click on the file, choose *open with* and

then choose the program you want to open it in) but the default will be

irfanview, which is ok (at least with me) because irfanview quite honestly,

is about the easiest photo editing software I've ever found and worth using

almost every time you need to edit a photo.

OK, so then once you do all that. open your file. It'll open in irfanview

and then you can edit it. Choose " image " from the file menu, and then

choose " resize " . Decide from the options given how you want to reduce the

image (there's like half a million different choices for reducing, you'll

see) and make the image smaller. Then choose " s " on your keyboard and a

" save as " box comes up. In that box, at the bottom you choose what kind of

image to save it as. Choose .jpeg. Choose on the other box you see come

up after you change to .jpeg, 100% for image quality. Then save the image

with a different file name into the folder you want it to go into (make

sure you check which folder it's going into, as if you don't it may go

somewhere you don't know as irfanview defaults to the last folder you had

open and will save there first if you don't change it). At that point, you

can go into the folder and select " details " in view and you will see your

file and how large it is. If it's still too large, open it again and

reduce accordingly. If you know how large the file is in the first place,

you should be able to reduce it close to 100kb by using the percentage

choice, if you figure it appropriately. Play with it, you'll figure it out.

HTH - apparently I need to go and check out the website as well to get mine

done.

I also wanted to... well... I'll do that privately lol... but way cool mama!

Kori

At 07:06 AM 9/10/2005, you wrote:

>Hi, we held off on asking us to be added, incase you just wanted

>everyone to e-mail the add me's to one e-mail, but it looks like your

>just going to go through and gather possibly so we ask to also please

>be added, and have a question. I went to the show site and when you

>try to submit a wish, etc you have to have a photo to submit that is a

>jpeg and under 100 somethings. What photo has everyone been using?

>None of my photo's on my pc appear to be jpegs. Also if you would

>rather all the add me's just be sent to one e-mail rather then someone

>having to look for them, I would be more then happy to accept and

>gather them for you. I will use a different e-mail address then usual

>though, if you decide you would like me too (just to keep it less

>confusing). Please let me know.

>

>Michele and Yoder, Parents to 4 year old Collin, unilateral

>right clubfoot. Began Ponseti method at age 2, with a Ponseti method

>trained doctor.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

,

I can't answer the rest of the questions, but as far as your photos I can

help a bit with that. If your photos are not .jpeg's all you have to do is

change them to jpeg's. Irfanview (www.irfanview.com) can change them

easily. Download the program (it's freeware and a very good photo editing

program) and open the photo you want in the program. If you tell your

puter to associate all image files with irfanview during setup you'll see

that your photos have a red splatty image on them indicating that they're

irfanview files. Basically that means when you double click on the photo

it'll open in irfanview automatically. You can still open the photos in

other software programs (right click on the file, choose *open with* and

then choose the program you want to open it in) but the default will be

irfanview, which is ok (at least with me) because irfanview quite honestly,

is about the easiest photo editing software I've ever found and worth using

almost every time you need to edit a photo.

OK, so then once you do all that. open your file. It'll open in irfanview

and then you can edit it. Choose " image " from the file menu, and then

choose " resize " . Decide from the options given how you want to reduce the

image (there's like half a million different choices for reducing, you'll

see) and make the image smaller. Then choose " s " on your keyboard and a

" save as " box comes up. In that box, at the bottom you choose what kind of

image to save it as. Choose .jpeg. Choose on the other box you see come

up after you change to .jpeg, 100% for image quality. Then save the image

with a different file name into the folder you want it to go into (make

sure you check which folder it's going into, as if you don't it may go

somewhere you don't know as irfanview defaults to the last folder you had

open and will save there first if you don't change it). At that point, you

can go into the folder and select " details " in view and you will see your

file and how large it is. If it's still too large, open it again and

reduce accordingly. If you know how large the file is in the first place,

you should be able to reduce it close to 100kb by using the percentage

choice, if you figure it appropriately. Play with it, you'll figure it out.

HTH - apparently I need to go and check out the website as well to get mine

done.

I also wanted to... well... I'll do that privately lol... but way cool mama!

Kori

At 07:06 AM 9/10/2005, you wrote:

>Hi, we held off on asking us to be added, incase you just wanted

>everyone to e-mail the add me's to one e-mail, but it looks like your

>just going to go through and gather possibly so we ask to also please

>be added, and have a question. I went to the show site and when you

>try to submit a wish, etc you have to have a photo to submit that is a

>jpeg and under 100 somethings. What photo has everyone been using?

>None of my photo's on my pc appear to be jpegs. Also if you would

>rather all the add me's just be sent to one e-mail rather then someone

>having to look for them, I would be more then happy to accept and

>gather them for you. I will use a different e-mail address then usual

>though, if you decide you would like me too (just to keep it less

>confusing). Please let me know.

>

>Michele and Yoder, Parents to 4 year old Collin, unilateral

>right clubfoot. Began Ponseti method at age 2, with a Ponseti method

>trained doctor.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks Kori, We have a house warming I'm getting ready to go to, but

I'll try it out tonight. I'm convinced your like a computer programer

on the side or something! You always know all of the technical pc

questions! I love it! I don't have a photo of Dr. P so maybe I'll

just do Collin in a ponseti cast type cast or something like that,

I'll figure it out tonight. Thanks!!!!

Michele

[Guest guest]

Thanks Kori, We have a house warming I'm getting ready to go to, but

I'll try it out tonight. I'm convinced your like a computer programer

on the side or something! You always know all of the technical pc

questions! I love it! I don't have a photo of Dr. P so maybe I'll

just do Collin in a ponseti cast type cast or something like that,

I'll figure it out tonight. Thanks!!!!

Michele

[Guest guest]

ee,

I just read your essay and it is great. I am sorry that I haven't

been on much recently and have missed what you are working on.

Please let me know what we need to do to be added to the list.

and Allyson Egbert and (6 1/2 years old and doing

great, born March 17, 1999)

http://www.vh.org/pediatric/patient/orthopaedics/clubfeet/egbert.html

> , and Everyone,

> here is the email version for the Life Time Achievement Award

Essay - (I'll send an attachment version also for easier printing

and/or editing if you choose). I hope this is somewhere with in a

hundred miles of what you were anticipating. I asked Joyce Roller

for more specifics but have not heard from her, so I went with what

I had and am sending it before you think I'm blowing off my

assignment here. Actually, ask my husband, I've lost a lot of

sleep, such a responsibility, such an important undertaking!

>

> If it sucks I'm not offended if you scratch it out and start from

scratch. Woven throughout you will notice I used your key points.

Likewise, if there is any mis-information that needs corrected by

all means bring it to my attention, or if anyone has information

prudent to the cause that I totally over looked, that too should be

brought forth! Because there was not a page limit / word limit, I

did not limit myself or even attempt to. It's double spaced and

justified for easier reading. Nor did I bring a case history of

any particular patient in to it, aiming to be objective and factual,

yet tell the story in such a way as to convey the man's compassion

and the legitimacy of this birth defect. I told it from the

standpoint of " We the parents of children born with clubfoot " ....I

do not mean to exclude those here who are now adults who were born

with clubfoot, but the objective is to spread the word that new born

babies will not endure the tortures of misinformed doctors using out

dated treatments.

>

> And with all that as my disclaimer, sitting here insecurely as I

toss out my wares for inspection, here is the actual essay as it

sits on my desk tonight.

> Blessings to all,

> ee

>

>

>

> Dr. Ignacio Ponseti Lifetime Achievement Award Essay

>

> by: ee Reese

> September 2005

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Five years after the Spanish military initiated an uprising

against their own Republican government sparking years of Civil War,

lin D. Roosevelt made his historic 3rd Inaugural Address to the

Nation, Pearl Harbor was obliterated, the famous Infamy Speech was

delivered, and the United States, having already suffered twelve

years of economic collapse on the heels of fighting World War I,

entered World War II.

>

> The year was 1941.

> It was the year a young man immigrated to America from Spain to

escape the post civil war ravages in his homeland.

>

> Historians suggest the Spanish Civil War which ejected this young

doctor on to American shores was merely a prelude to the World War

that he traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in effort to escape. They

further suggest the Spanish war was a testing ground, implying the

bombing of Guernica promoted advances in twentieth-century warfare

techniques and technology.

>

> Fortunately, this era brought forth amazing advances in medical

technique and technology as well - which also came from Spain.

>

> His name was Ignacio Ponseti. He came to America an immigrant, a

young doctor escaping a war torn country to enter a country that was

engaging into a war of epic proportions that very same year. It was

a small world after all.

>

> Ultimately he arrived at the University of Iowa College of

Medicine where his assignment was to perform certain follow up

studies on patients who had been treated for clubfoot according to

the " modern " medical standards of that time. Disappointed with his

findings, the young doctor dedicated his life to finding a better

way to cure this crippling birth defect.

> Only seven years after his arrival to the United States, post war

America was a very different place. Luxury automobile owners were

sporting the newly invented electric car windows. Art Mooney was

topping the charts with his hit song I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf

Clover; and fittingly with this new-found era of American

prosperity, our young Dr. Ponseti achieved his goal. In 1948,

through his years of dedicated hands on treatment and research, he

discovered, then refined, his non-surgical method for correcting

clubfoot.

>

> The glory of his work is that children no longer have to undergo

painful surgeries that most often result in a life time of painful

feet and subsequent surgeries.

> The horror is that fifty-seven years after developing his method,

the medical community at large continues to practice according to

the same techniques they used half a century ago when he started,

ignoring the Ponseti Method despite his decades of follow up studies

proving its 95% effectiveness rate when performed properly.

>

> In 1941 he was a Spanish Immigrant. Today, he is Professor

Emeritus Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Iowa College of

Medicine. The doctor, and his method, remain one of the world's

best kept secrets as the medical community continually refuses to

adopt or even recognize the validity of his method.

>

> As the parents of children born with this vulgar, crippling,

congenital birth defect, we consider this unacceptable.

>

> When he was 70 years old the University of Iowa, where he still

practiced, forced Dr. Ponseti to retire. Two years later, he

convinced the University to take him back despite his 'advanced'

age. He continued to perform his miracle on otherwise crippled

babies for the next fourteen years.

>

> When he was 84, he once again headed in to retirement - then the

internet happened. Word of his non-surgical method began to

spread. As parents discovered they had a choice, they began to

travel from across the USA and from across the ocean seeking out his

method for their children. Today, twenty years after the University

tried to force him to quit, parents are still traveling to see him,

or one of his few qualified associates. And finally, after fifty

odd years of dedicated service, the University of Iowa Hospital

finally recognized Dr. Ponseti's contribution to both their facility

and the medical field by naming a branch of their clinic after the

man who has given his life to giving children happy feet.

> Word continues to spread by mouth and internet about this

astonishing, dedicated man and his incredible journey that started

half a world away a half a century ago, but as the parents of

children born with clubfoot we face two major obstacles.

> First, to be completely candid, time is ticking. Dr. Ponseti

will celebrate his 91st birthday in June of this year (2005) yet he

continues to serve parents and babies in his clinic at the

University of Iowa - the oldest of hands gently repairing the

youngest of patients.

> " Do not cry, Baby. " The gentle, quiet words roll off his tongue

in a thick Spanish accent that immediately begins to sooth the

anxious child with their music. " If you cry, then I will cry, and

then my nurse will cry and then your Ma'Ma will cry. We will all be

crying! Do not cry, Baby. " and turning to the mother, " Here Ma'Ma,

take your baby, comfort him, I will not work on a crying baby, let

him calm down. " He points to the old rocking chair where he so

often sits to do his exams. The mother rocks her baby. The room

smiles. The mother, the father, the nurses, the students, and Dr.

Ponseti, the 90 year old doctor pauses in his work for as long as

it takes as if this infant is the only infant in the world and time

has stood still for it.

>

> He continues to teach any doctor willing to learn; he consults

daily via email and telephone not only with other doctors, but

personally answering the calls of distraught parents and sorting

through the photos and videos parents send showing their baby's feet

at various stages of various treatments. He turns no one away.

> " You must come right away. " He is on the phone answering the

email plea sent with digital photos of a 19 month old boy with

deformed feet despite a year and a half of treatments and physical

therapy. " I can help " , says the doctor, " but there is no time to be

lost, you must come right away. You get here and I will see you. "

> Because of the previous nineteen months of substandard treatment

this child will never be completely corrected nor ever know what it

means to have pain-free feet despite Dr. Ponseti's best efforts.

But though his efforts, another believer is born, who spreads the

word of his miracles so no other child has to endure what her son

must endure.

> Slowly, through the efforts of parents like us spreading the word

and insisting we have alternatives to surgery, the list of

qualified Ponseti Method physicians is growing annually. But time

is ticking and the method is at risk of being lost forever.

>

> The second obstacle we face is the medical world, sadly enough.

Through the internet the term Ponseti Method has gained popularity,

even if the actual method has not. Suddenly the clinics are flooded

with cheap imitations throwing around the words " Ponseti Method "

although they are not practicing the Ponseti Method in any true

form. These doctors are not skilled in the method, they have

received no formal training, and unfortunately, most parents don't

know the difference until it is too late, until they can no longer

deny their child is not getting any better and may in fact, be

getting worse. So they finally do their own research. They finally

make that call, and Dr. Ponseti says to come right away, because he

always says come right away, because he always holds out hope to the

very end. Because every baby becomes his baby.

> But these children do not always arrive in time to be rescued from

their horrible fate, because while clubfoot is nearly 100%

correctable, there is a limited window of opportunity that allows

the miracle to take place. Once the window is closed, the basic

human anatomy of the foot no longer lets a non-surgical correction

happen. And if the baby arrives to Ponseti's care too late, that

baby will forever suffer the consequences of inadequate care.

> With so many unqualified doctors suddenly claiming to use the

Ponseti Method, yet doing something quite different, the results are

predictably disastrous. Thus we risk that the method will be

eventually proven ineffective as these results are published and the

public and medical communities combined rally against the Ponseti

Method for it's ineffectiveness with out realizing this lack of

success is not due to the method not working, but due to gross and

incompetent misuse of the method by untrained physicians.

>

> And when the that happens, the method will be lost forever. There

are already claims that Ponseti's method is only perhaps 70, 60 or

50% effective - when in fact, qualified doctors who use the method

according to the protocol are consistently achieving 95% success

rates year after year after year.

>

> And again we say, as the parents of babies born with this ugly,

crippling birth defect, this is completely unacceptable.

>

> So how do we know? How is a parent who has just been dealt the

crushing news their baby has a major birth defect supposed to know

the difference when any doctor who has heard of clubfeet is suddenly

proclaiming to be advanced in the method of treating either though

Ponseti's method or more traditional modes? When a baby is born

with a birth defect, and one as physically ugly as clubfoot often

is, a parent is eager to relieve their own sense of guilt and

their child's suffering. They often are so eager they blindly trust

the local doctor - after all, he's a doctor, he should know. And

when we ask, when we finally get around to noticing something is

wrong and we ask, we are riddled with long technical answers that

leave us feeling inferior and confused and ashamed of ourselves for

questioning his superiority. So how do we know what to do?

>

> Through public awareness like this, for starters.

>

> In traditional treatments, the infant is often put through months

of serial casting where their foot is manually wrenched in to a

normal looking position and casted in to that shape as it grows. As

recent as the 1960's, Dr. Dennis Brown writes that he used

mechanical devices to wrench the foot in to position prior to

casting. Somehow, the Foot Abduction Brace (FAB) which is used in

the Ponseti Method became known popularly as the Dennis Brown Bar,

or DBB. (We call it the FAB, wanting no association between Dr.

Ponseti's gentle care and the horrific mechanical tortures used by

Dr. Brown.)

> At the end of all this the child almost always undergoes

corrective surgery anyway because the bones remain misaligned. The

surgery involves taking the foot apart and reassembling it to look

normal on the outside even though it has been grossly disassembled

and remains deformed on the inside. The result is the bones are not

allowed to grow naturally as they should; scar tissue builds up;

joints stiffen; tendons are unable to stretch; more surgeries become

necessary to loosen a tendon, to scrape out scar tissue, to add

steel pins or remove steel pins. And still the foot remains

misshapen and painful to use, often not fitting in any type of

regular shoe.

> The only thing the Ponseti Method has in common with the

traditional method of treatment is the term Serial Casting, which

implies a series of casts are applied to the child. In the 1940's

Dr. Ponseti discovered what all the others had overlooked - the

delicate infrastructure of the foot and the logical, sequential

placement of it's twenty-six bones. The bones in a clubbed foot

are all there, they're really OK, but like a jigsaw puzzle, they

come mixed up in the box and need put back together to make the

final picture. Traditional methods of correction do not account for

this. Traditional thinking seems to believe the bones are wrong,

that the bones need fixed. But they aren't wrong, and they don't

need fixed, they just need gentle hands and careful eyes placing

them in the correct spot like the intricate puzzle they are - not

sawed upon to fit where a doctor wants them or crammed in to

positions where they were not intended by nature to fit.

>

> Treated properly by the Ponseti Method, the tiny new born bones

are very gently, slowly and methodically manipulated by gentle hands

in to their proper alignment where they are expertly casted in to

place for a period of five to seven days. Again and again the

process is repeated over the course of approximately five weeks -

each bone individually identified, placed in its necessary position

according to a certain sequence of movements, and casted in to

place, maintained for approximately a week as the foot adapts.

> Most infants sleep through the process as the doctor finds the

correct bones and moves them carefully, and always sequentially, in

to their proper position (compared to the physical restraint babies

require using other methods). Others eat or play. And almost none

cry, because it is neither frightening nor painful. No drugs are

given, no shots, no restraints, the parents are always present,

holding or other wise comforting the baby, and if fear does creep in

and cause the child anxiety, the process is stopped until the baby

is again feeling calm and secure because an anxious child will be

tense, and tense bones and muscles cannot be properly aligned

anyway. So the whole Ponseti Method rests largely on maintaining a

calm, happy baby though the correction process. The entire visit is

usually over with in less than a half an hour.

>

> While we don't want Ponseti's method mixed up with any new-age

mentality that it ranks with acupuncture, herbs, aroma therapy or

the beating of drums during the twelfth hour of the full moon as

Venus enters the shadow of Mars - neither does this method belong

to the ranks of sterile surgical rooms, recovery rooms, antibiotics,

stitches, face masks, needles, tubes or electronic monitoring

devices.

> Completely scientific, completely proven, completely safe and

effective, the Ponseti Method is a very gentle and organic procedure

saving children from their crippling condition.

> The average infant born with clubfoot has corrected, fully

functional feet with in five to seven weeks of serial casting when

the casting is performed in this manner. In other words, this child

treated correctly by the Ponseti Method will have normal feet before

he is ever old enough to realize they were missing in the first

place.

>

> When the manipulation of the bones is complete, the infant is

moved out of casting and in to the Foot Abduction Brace (FAB) - a

small pair of baby booties connected by a bar that runs between

them. Set at very specific degrees and measurements to match each

individual infant, the baby wears this brace for 23 hours a day for

the first three months of use. From there the amount of time the

baby wears the brace is gradually reduced to approximately twelve to

fourteen hours of wear - bed time - as the bones grow and experience

their natural hardening process. Unlike the unfortunate children

who might wear the casts for six to twelve months in the traditional

methods, babies who wear the FAB are not delayed in development.

They can roll over, crawl, and eventually cruise with the FAB on

their feet meeting every milestone on time. They still fit in to

normal cloths, cribs, high chairs and car seats with the FAB on

their feet, it becomes only a small extension of the child, for a

small part of their life.

>

> By the end of the treatment period, the feet have grown, the bones

have hardened as they do, and the correction is now maintained

simply by the natural growth and exercise of the foot. Because no

bones were cut, lengthened or shortened, no pins were surgically

inserted, no tendons were cut, no muscles were peeled back to expose

the bones for surgery - there is nothing to heal, nothing to

infect, and nothing to malfunction. The entire foot can now grow and

function completely normally for the rest of that individual's life.

>

> No surgical theaters. No anesthesia. No pain killers. No

antibiotics. No hospital stays. No IV's. No starving the infant for

hours prior to the operation. No separation of the infant from his

parents. Reduced cost of treatment. Ninety-five percent success

rate. The promise of normal, natural feet. No ugly scars on the

outside of the skin, or crippling scar tissue growing on the

inside. Fifty years of use and follow up studies to back it.

>

> And still, no one wants to listen.

>

> And still, as the parents of children born with clubfoot, as

citizens in the most medically advanced nation on this earth, we

find surgical treatment of clubfoot not only barbaric, but

irresponsible, negligent to the extent of malpractice...and

completely unacceptable.

>

> Why then will no body listen?

> Because we're talking about feet? Because there is no drama

to a non-surgical method? Ask the parents of children born with

clubfoot if their child's birth defect lacks drama.

>

> According to the March of Dimes:

> Neural Tube Defects (NTDs) affect 1 per 2,000 births.

> Down Syndrome ranks at 1 in 800 births.

> Sickle Cell Anemia affects from 1 in 500 to 1 in 1000 depending on

racial factors.

> Cleft Palate affects 1 in 1000.

> And Clubfoot is calculated to affect 1 in 735 births annually in

the United States, with higher rates abroad.

> It can be estimated by 2002 population figures that Clubfoot

affects approximately 4,000 to 5,000 American newborn babies each

year. More than Neural Tube Defects. More than Down Syndrome.

More than Cleft Palate. More or the same as Sickle Cell Anemia

> Even the March of Dimes remains unaware as their website suggests

as many as 50% of the infants born with Clubfoot will require a

surgical correction; that's forty-five percent more surgeries than

necessary. The Ponseti Method averages a low 5 percent surgical rate.

>

> But these are feet we're talking about, right? Who wants to pay

any attention to feet when there are much more exciting and dramatic

(although less prevalent) birth defects to talk about?

>

> Why talk about a non-surgical medical procedure when there are

much more colorful, gruesome, theatrical surgeries to broadcast?

Blood sells, right? Images of oxygen masks, heart monitors, teams

of doctors in their frocks hunched over a patient who is cut wide

open? Or a condition with no known cure? That's good television.

Sick children with no cure in sight. Twisted feet torturously

dissected is good television. A non-surgical method created by a

Spanish Civil War Veteran in 1948 who still practices at the age of

91 years old - is also good television because behind the producer

who has the guts to broadcast this are 4,000 more babies being born

this year who are at risk of having their feet cut up unnecessarily -

and you could save them.

> We are here to nominate Doctor Ignacio Ponseti for the Lifetime

Achievement Award because he has truly given his life to these

crippled babies. His entire adult life, rapidly approaching a

century old, has been dedicated to achieving not personal goals for

his own fame and fortune because if that were the case, he and his

method would be world famous by now! But to achieving a happy life

minus the pain of deformed feet for thousands of babies world wide.

Abraham Lincoln said it best, " I can't think if my feet hurt. " If

ever a time in history demanded our future generations have clear

minds to think with, it is now.

>

> If awarded, Dr. Ponseti's wish is characteristically unselfish.

When asked, his only wish was that he be able to contribute more

than he already has, that his work be continued after he is gone

though the veins of his foundation: The Clubfoot Clinic Fund.

>

> This foundation supports research of clubfoot so perhaps the one

in a thousand babies currently born in the US each year with this

birth defect can be diminished if not eliminated completely

(scientists believe they have recently isolated the gene that causes

clubfoot); it supports the continued development of better treatment

options such as better casting materials and better designs of the

Foot Abduction Brace; it helps pay for treatments that otherwise

could not be afforded by economically challenged parents; it sends

supplies and braces to the poor and under-developed countries around

the world; it supports bringing in doctors from both America and

over seas to train with Dr. Ponseti and his colleagues in Iowa so

they may take the method home and continue its use; it funds the

development of clubfoot clinics in 3rd world countries where the

rate of clubfoot per capita is much higher than it is here in the US.

>

> Granted his wish, the sky would be the limit. More doctors could

afford to train under Dr. Ponseti; an educated medical community

could identify and eliminate from practice those who are performing

the method falsely; teleconferencing technology could be put in

place so doctors world wide could consult with one another directly,

sharing video images, photos, x-rays, advice, help and ultimately,

success. Public awareness in the general population could be raised

so eventually no child will have to suffer the consequences of

treatment that became outdated three years after their great-

grandparents came home from WWII - because through public

awareness, those methods would become as happily obsolete as Art

Mooney's 1948 top ten song.

>

> Additionally, although Dr. Ponseti did not request this, we would

like to organize a reunion of his patients, both those who have been

treated by his gentle hands in person, and those who were treated by

his method thanks to the few doctors who have taken the time to

learn it. We would like to publicly honor the man who gave our

children back their feet.

>

> We nominate Dr. Ponseti not as a small group of mothers who meet

at the coffee shop with too much time on our hands - but as

hundreds, if not thousands of mothers, and fathers, and

grandparents, aunts and uncles and children young and old who have

experienced clubfoot first hand, who have educated themselves, their

friends and their neighbors, who have continued for years now the

daunting task of speaking loudly that the world might finally listen

and finally eliminate the primitive treatments still in use today on

our young babies.

>

> We nominate Dr. Ponseti on behalf of the 45,000 (yes, forty-five

thousand) babies who will be born in the U.S. over the next ten

years who will suffer this birth defect.

>

> It's been close to sixty years. It's time this great American

story is told to the world. It is time the world knew medical

science has escaped the 1940's and moved in to the twenty-first

century.

>

> He was an immigrant escaping the Spanish Civil War arriving in

America the year we entered World War II. Now he is a 91 year old

doctor who still walks to work each day to treat his tiniest of

patients, because if not Dr. Ponseti, then who? The world must

learn and new young doctors must move in to fill the shoes, to

advance the method, to save the babies.

>

> We, the parents of children born with clubfoot implore you to

explore the rich and colorful life of this silent American icon so

he will not only get the recognition he deserves after half a

century of service, but also so no other baby will have to endure

the horrors of having their feet taken apart and put artificially

back together unnecessarily.

>

> If nothing else happens from our attempt to honor Dr. Ponseti with

the Lifetime Achievement Award, one very key thing has happened

right before your very eyes: you, the reader, are now informed.

>

> We the parents of children born with clubfoot have reached one

more person, who will, some day, tell two friends who will, someday,

tell two friends. And thus, the Ponseti Method has survived for

half a century one person at a time - and truly, that is probably

the only reward Dr. Ponseti would ever ask for, that the word be

spread, even if by only one mouth and one ear at a time. He doesn't

want awards, he wants to see an end to the senseless brutality our

trusted doctors are inflicting upon our tiniest of babies. Once

that is accomplished, then, maybe then, he will finally feel it is

safe for him to retire and pass his torch to the next generation

trusting we will keep it burning.

>

>

>

>

>

> Summary and Contact Information:

>

> There are two forms of clubfeet. The first is relatively minor

and known as Positional Clubfoot often due to a lack of amniotic

fluid in the uterus cramping the baby's development. The second is

Congenital Clubfeet, it is considered idiopathic, meaning doctors

are not entirely sure what causes it , but suspect it caused by an

unknown genetic factor coming in to play affecting the baby at

approximately 20 weeks post conception. There also appears to be a

slight inheritance factor involved as well, although not always.

Because clubfoot is not present in the early weeks of development

when most ultrasounds are performed, the condition is often not

discovered until the child's birth.

> The Ponseti Method of Clubfoot correction is superior to the

traditional method of treatment in that the baby's bones are gently

persuaded to move in to their natural position through a process of

systematic serial castings. No surgeries take place. No bones are

cut, broken, or pinned back together. No muscles or tendons are

stripped. No joints are penetrated. The method is completely non-

intrusive. Done correctly the foot is allowed to continue its

natural progression in to adulthood allowing these child to live

normal, active lives.

> With correction performed properly by a qualified physician and

with the parent's diligent and dedicated use of the FAB (Foot

Abduction Brace), babies treated by the Ponseti Method enjoy a 95%

success rate, i.e., 95% of the babies will never need a surgical

attempt at correction.

>

> For more information about the clubfoot deformity, please contact

the University of Iowa Clubfoot Clinic at (319)356-3469 or visit

http://www.vh.org/pediatric/patient/orthopaedics/clubfeet/index.html

for medical reports, articles, FAQ's, testimonials and photos.

Parents or family members of a clubfooted baby are urged to join the

nosurgery4clubfoot group at Yahoo! groups,

nosurgery4clubfoot for advice and support.

>

>

>

> This Nomination is sent to you by the Parents of Children Born

With Clubfoot and the children born with clubfoot who became the

victims of misinformed doctors, as well as the children who have

most blessedly been cured by the life's work of Dr. Ignacio

Ponseti - and all the clubfooted babies yet to come.

>

> Signed and Sincerely,

>

> ee and Chriss Reese of Oklahoma

> - parents of two clubfooted sons, who remains somewhat

crippled because we did not know yet about Dr. Ponseti, and Everett

who enjoys perfect feet thanks to Dr. Ponseti.

> Harvey and June Reese of Oklahoma

> - parents of one clubfooted child, Mark, who remains with

crippled feet because no one knew about the Ponseti Method.

> Leroy Reese of Oklahoma

> - father of one clubfooted son, Greg, who remains with crippled

feet because no one knew about the Ponseti Method.

>

> Others add your names like this too and grow the list

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

ee,

I just read your essay and it is great. I am sorry that I haven't

been on much recently and have missed what you are working on.

Please let me know what we need to do to be added to the list.

and Allyson Egbert and (6 1/2 years old and doing

great, born March 17, 1999)

http://www.vh.org/pediatric/patient/orthopaedics/clubfeet/egbert.html

> , and Everyone,

> here is the email version for the Life Time Achievement Award

Essay - (I'll send an attachment version also for easier printing

and/or editing if you choose). I hope this is somewhere with in a

hundred miles of what you were anticipating. I asked Joyce Roller

for more specifics but have not heard from her, so I went with what

I had and am sending it before you think I'm blowing off my

assignment here. Actually, ask my husband, I've lost a lot of

sleep, such a responsibility, such an important undertaking!

>

> If it sucks I'm not offended if you scratch it out and start from

scratch. Woven throughout you will notice I used your key points.

Likewise, if there is any mis-information that needs corrected by

all means bring it to my attention, or if anyone has information

prudent to the cause that I totally over looked, that too should be

brought forth! Because there was not a page limit / word limit, I

did not limit myself or even attempt to. It's double spaced and

justified for easier reading. Nor did I bring a case history of

any particular patient in to it, aiming to be objective and factual,

yet tell the story in such a way as to convey the man's compassion

and the legitimacy of this birth defect. I told it from the

standpoint of " We the parents of children born with clubfoot " ....I

do not mean to exclude those here who are now adults who were born

with clubfoot, but the objective is to spread the word that new born

babies will not endure the tortures of misinformed doctors using out

dated treatments.

>

> And with all that as my disclaimer, sitting here insecurely as I

toss out my wares for inspection, here is the actual essay as it

sits on my desk tonight.

> Blessings to all,

> ee

>

>

>

> Dr. Ignacio Ponseti Lifetime Achievement Award Essay

>

> by: ee Reese

> September 2005

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Five years after the Spanish military initiated an uprising

against their own Republican government sparking years of Civil War,

lin D. Roosevelt made his historic 3rd Inaugural Address to the

Nation, Pearl Harbor was obliterated, the famous Infamy Speech was

delivered, and the United States, having already suffered twelve

years of economic collapse on the heels of fighting World War I,

entered World War II.

>

> The year was 1941.

> It was the year a young man immigrated to America from Spain to

escape the post civil war ravages in his homeland.

>

> Historians suggest the Spanish Civil War which ejected this young

doctor on to American shores was merely a prelude to the World War

that he traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in effort to escape. They

further suggest the Spanish war was a testing ground, implying the

bombing of Guernica promoted advances in twentieth-century warfare

techniques and technology.

>

> Fortunately, this era brought forth amazing advances in medical

technique and technology as well - which also came from Spain.

>

> His name was Ignacio Ponseti. He came to America an immigrant, a

young doctor escaping a war torn country to enter a country that was

engaging into a war of epic proportions that very same year. It was

a small world after all.

>

> Ultimately he arrived at the University of Iowa College of

Medicine where his assignment was to perform certain follow up

studies on patients who had been treated for clubfoot according to

the " modern " medical standards of that time. Disappointed with his

findings, the young doctor dedicated his life to finding a better

way to cure this crippling birth defect.

> Only seven years after his arrival to the United States, post war

America was a very different place. Luxury automobile owners were

sporting the newly invented electric car windows. Art Mooney was

topping the charts with his hit song I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf

Clover; and fittingly with this new-found era of American

prosperity, our young Dr. Ponseti achieved his goal. In 1948,

through his years of dedicated hands on treatment and research, he

discovered, then refined, his non-surgical method for correcting

clubfoot.

>

> The glory of his work is that children no longer have to undergo

painful surgeries that most often result in a life time of painful

feet and subsequent surgeries.

> The horror is that fifty-seven years after developing his method,

the medical community at large continues to practice according to

the same techniques they used half a century ago when he started,

ignoring the Ponseti Method despite his decades of follow up studies

proving its 95% effectiveness rate when performed properly.

>

> In 1941 he was a Spanish Immigrant. Today, he is Professor

Emeritus Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Iowa College of

Medicine. The doctor, and his method, remain one of the world's

best kept secrets as the medical community continually refuses to

adopt or even recognize the validity of his method.

>

> As the parents of children born with this vulgar, crippling,

congenital birth defect, we consider this unacceptable.

>

> When he was 70 years old the University of Iowa, where he still

practiced, forced Dr. Ponseti to retire. Two years later, he

convinced the University to take him back despite his 'advanced'

age. He continued to perform his miracle on otherwise crippled

babies for the next fourteen years.

>

> When he was 84, he once again headed in to retirement - then the

internet happened. Word of his non-surgical method began to

spread. As parents discovered they had a choice, they began to

travel from across the USA and from across the ocean seeking out his

method for their children. Today, twenty years after the University

tried to force him to quit, parents are still traveling to see him,

or one of his few qualified associates. And finally, after fifty

odd years of dedicated service, the University of Iowa Hospital

finally recognized Dr. Ponseti's contribution to both their facility

and the medical field by naming a branch of their clinic after the

man who has given his life to giving children happy feet.

> Word continues to spread by mouth and internet about this

astonishing, dedicated man and his incredible journey that started

half a world away a half a century ago, but as the parents of

children born with clubfoot we face two major obstacles.

> First, to be completely candid, time is ticking. Dr. Ponseti

will celebrate his 91st birthday in June of this year (2005) yet he

continues to serve parents and babies in his clinic at the

University of Iowa - the oldest of hands gently repairing the

youngest of patients.

> " Do not cry, Baby. " The gentle, quiet words roll off his tongue

in a thick Spanish accent that immediately begins to sooth the

anxious child with their music. " If you cry, then I will cry, and

then my nurse will cry and then your Ma'Ma will cry. We will all be

crying! Do not cry, Baby. " and turning to the mother, " Here Ma'Ma,

take your baby, comfort him, I will not work on a crying baby, let

him calm down. " He points to the old rocking chair where he so

often sits to do his exams. The mother rocks her baby. The room

smiles. The mother, the father, the nurses, the students, and Dr.

Ponseti, the 90 year old doctor pauses in his work for as long as

it takes as if this infant is the only infant in the world and time

has stood still for it.

>

> He continues to teach any doctor willing to learn; he consults

daily via email and telephone not only with other doctors, but

personally answering the calls of distraught parents and sorting

through the photos and videos parents send showing their baby's feet

at various stages of various treatments. He turns no one away.

> " You must come right away. " He is on the phone answering the

email plea sent with digital photos of a 19 month old boy with

deformed feet despite a year and a half of treatments and physical

therapy. " I can help " , says the doctor, " but there is no time to be

lost, you must come right away. You get here and I will see you. "

> Because of the previous nineteen months of substandard treatment

this child will never be completely corrected nor ever know what it

means to have pain-free feet despite Dr. Ponseti's best efforts.

But though his efforts, another believer is born, who spreads the

word of his miracles so no other child has to endure what her son

must endure.

> Slowly, through the efforts of parents like us spreading the word

and insisting we have alternatives to surgery, the list of

qualified Ponseti Method physicians is growing annually. But time

is ticking and the method is at risk of being lost forever.

>

> The second obstacle we face is the medical world, sadly enough.

Through the internet the term Ponseti Method has gained popularity,

even if the actual method has not. Suddenly the clinics are flooded

with cheap imitations throwing around the words " Ponseti Method "

although they are not practicing the Ponseti Method in any true

form. These doctors are not skilled in the method, they have

received no formal training, and unfortunately, most parents don't

know the difference until it is too late, until they can no longer

deny their child is not getting any better and may in fact, be

getting worse. So they finally do their own research. They finally

make that call, and Dr. Ponseti says to come right away, because he

always says come right away, because he always holds out hope to the

very end. Because every baby becomes his baby.

> But these children do not always arrive in time to be rescued from

their horrible fate, because while clubfoot is nearly 100%

correctable, there is a limited window of opportunity that allows

the miracle to take place. Once the window is closed, the basic

human anatomy of the foot no longer lets a non-surgical correction

happen. And if the baby arrives to Ponseti's care too late, that

baby will forever suffer the consequences of inadequate care.

> With so many unqualified doctors suddenly claiming to use the

Ponseti Method, yet doing something quite different, the results are

predictably disastrous. Thus we risk that the method will be

eventually proven ineffective as these results are published and the

public and medical communities combined rally against the Ponseti

Method for it's ineffectiveness with out realizing this lack of

success is not due to the method not working, but due to gross and

incompetent misuse of the method by untrained physicians.

>

> And when the that happens, the method will be lost forever. There

are already claims that Ponseti's method is only perhaps 70, 60 or

50% effective - when in fact, qualified doctors who use the method

according to the protocol are consistently achieving 95% success

rates year after year after year.

>

> And again we say, as the parents of babies born with this ugly,

crippling birth defect, this is completely unacceptable.

>

> So how do we know? How is a parent who has just been dealt the

crushing news their baby has a major birth defect supposed to know

the difference when any doctor who has heard of clubfeet is suddenly

proclaiming to be advanced in the method of treating either though

Ponseti's method or more traditional modes? When a baby is born

with a birth defect, and one as physically ugly as clubfoot often

is, a parent is eager to relieve their own sense of guilt and

their child's suffering. They often are so eager they blindly trust

the local doctor - after all, he's a doctor, he should know. And

when we ask, when we finally get around to noticing something is

wrong and we ask, we are riddled with long technical answers that

leave us feeling inferior and confused and ashamed of ourselves for

questioning his superiority. So how do we know what to do?

>

> Through public awareness like this, for starters.

>

> In traditional treatments, the infant is often put through months

of serial casting where their foot is manually wrenched in to a

normal looking position and casted in to that shape as it grows. As

recent as the 1960's, Dr. Dennis Brown writes that he used

mechanical devices to wrench the foot in to position prior to

casting. Somehow, the Foot Abduction Brace (FAB) which is used in

the Ponseti Method became known popularly as the Dennis Brown Bar,

or DBB. (We call it the FAB, wanting no association between Dr.

Ponseti's gentle care and the horrific mechanical tortures used by

Dr. Brown.)

> At the end of all this the child almost always undergoes

corrective surgery anyway because the bones remain misaligned. The

surgery involves taking the foot apart and reassembling it to look

normal on the outside even though it has been grossly disassembled

and remains deformed on the inside. The result is the bones are not

allowed to grow naturally as they should; scar tissue builds up;

joints stiffen; tendons are unable to stretch; more surgeries become

necessary to loosen a tendon, to scrape out scar tissue, to add

steel pins or remove steel pins. And still the foot remains

misshapen and painful to use, often not fitting in any type of

regular shoe.

> The only thing the Ponseti Method has in common with the

traditional method of treatment is the term Serial Casting, which

implies a series of casts are applied to the child. In the 1940's

Dr. Ponseti discovered what all the others had overlooked - the

delicate infrastructure of the foot and the logical, sequential

placement of it's twenty-six bones. The bones in a clubbed foot

are all there, they're really OK, but like a jigsaw puzzle, they

come mixed up in the box and need put back together to make the

final picture. Traditional methods of correction do not account for

this. Traditional thinking seems to believe the bones are wrong,

that the bones need fixed. But they aren't wrong, and they don't

need fixed, they just need gentle hands and careful eyes placing

them in the correct spot like the intricate puzzle they are - not

sawed upon to fit where a doctor wants them or crammed in to

positions where they were not intended by nature to fit.

>

> Treated properly by the Ponseti Method, the tiny new born bones

are very gently, slowly and methodically manipulated by gentle hands

in to their proper alignment where they are expertly casted in to

place for a period of five to seven days. Again and again the

process is repeated over the course of approximately five weeks -

each bone individually identified, placed in its necessary position

according to a certain sequence of movements, and casted in to

place, maintained for approximately a week as the foot adapts.

> Most infants sleep through the process as the doctor finds the

correct bones and moves them carefully, and always sequentially, in

to their proper position (compared to the physical restraint babies

require using other methods). Others eat or play. And almost none

cry, because it is neither frightening nor painful. No drugs are

given, no shots, no restraints, the parents are always present,

holding or other wise comforting the baby, and if fear does creep in

and cause the child anxiety, the process is stopped until the baby

is again feeling calm and secure because an anxious child will be

tense, and tense bones and muscles cannot be properly aligned

anyway. So the whole Ponseti Method rests largely on maintaining a

calm, happy baby though the correction process. The entire visit is

usually over with in less than a half an hour.

>

> While we don't want Ponseti's method mixed up with any new-age

mentality that it ranks with acupuncture, herbs, aroma therapy or

the beating of drums during the twelfth hour of the full moon as

Venus enters the shadow of Mars - neither does this method belong

to the ranks of sterile surgical rooms, recovery rooms, antibiotics,

stitches, face masks, needles, tubes or electronic monitoring

devices.

> Completely scientific, completely proven, completely safe and

effective, the Ponseti Method is a very gentle and organic procedure

saving children from their crippling condition.

> The average infant born with clubfoot has corrected, fully

functional feet with in five to seven weeks of serial casting when

the casting is performed in this manner. In other words, this child

treated correctly by the Ponseti Method will have normal feet before

he is ever old enough to realize they were missing in the first

place.

>

> When the manipulation of the bones is complete, the infant is

moved out of casting and in to the Foot Abduction Brace (FAB) - a

small pair of baby booties connected by a bar that runs between

them. Set at very specific degrees and measurements to match each

individual infant, the baby wears this brace for 23 hours a day for

the first three months of use. From there the amount of time the

baby wears the brace is gradually reduced to approximately twelve to

fourteen hours of wear - bed time - as the bones grow and experience

their natural hardening process. Unlike the unfortunate children

who might wear the casts for six to twelve months in the traditional

methods, babies who wear the FAB are not delayed in development.

They can roll over, crawl, and eventually cruise with the FAB on

their feet meeting every milestone on time. They still fit in to

normal cloths, cribs, high chairs and car seats with the FAB on

their feet, it becomes only a small extension of the child, for a

small part of their life.

>

> By the end of the treatment period, the feet have grown, the bones

have hardened as they do, and the correction is now maintained

simply by the natural growth and exercise of the foot. Because no

bones were cut, lengthened or shortened, no pins were surgically

inserted, no tendons were cut, no muscles were peeled back to expose

the bones for surgery - there is nothing to heal, nothing to

infect, and nothing to malfunction. The entire foot can now grow and

function completely normally for the rest of that individual's life.

>

> No surgical theaters. No anesthesia. No pain killers. No

antibiotics. No hospital stays. No IV's. No starving the infant for

hours prior to the operation. No separation of the infant from his

parents. Reduced cost of treatment. Ninety-five percent success

rate. The promise of normal, natural feet. No ugly scars on the

outside of the skin, or crippling scar tissue growing on the

inside. Fifty years of use and follow up studies to back it.

>

> And still, no one wants to listen.

>

> And still, as the parents of children born with clubfoot, as

citizens in the most medically advanced nation on this earth, we

find surgical treatment of clubfoot not only barbaric, but

irresponsible, negligent to the extent of malpractice...and

completely unacceptable.

>

> Why then will no body listen?

> Because we're talking about feet? Because there is no drama

to a non-surgical method? Ask the parents of children born with

clubfoot if their child's birth defect lacks drama.

>

> According to the March of Dimes:

> Neural Tube Defects (NTDs) affect 1 per 2,000 births.

> Down Syndrome ranks at 1 in 800 births.

> Sickle Cell Anemia affects from 1 in 500 to 1 in 1000 depending on

racial factors.

> Cleft Palate affects 1 in 1000.

> And Clubfoot is calculated to affect 1 in 735 births annually in

the United States, with higher rates abroad.

> It can be estimated by 2002 population figures that Clubfoot

affects approximately 4,000 to 5,000 American newborn babies each

year. More than Neural Tube Defects. More than Down Syndrome.

More than Cleft Palate. More or the same as Sickle Cell Anemia

> Even the March of Dimes remains unaware as their website suggests

as many as 50% of the infants born with Clubfoot will require a

surgical correction; that's forty-five percent more surgeries than

necessary. The Ponseti Method averages a low 5 percent surgical rate.

>

> But these are feet we're talking about, right? Who wants to pay

any attention to feet when there are much more exciting and dramatic

(although less prevalent) birth defects to talk about?

>

> Why talk about a non-surgical medical procedure when there are

much more colorful, gruesome, theatrical surgeries to broadcast?

Blood sells, right? Images of oxygen masks, heart monitors, teams

of doctors in their frocks hunched over a patient who is cut wide

open? Or a condition with no known cure? That's good television.

Sick children with no cure in sight. Twisted feet torturously

dissected is good television. A non-surgical method created by a

Spanish Civil War Veteran in 1948 who still practices at the age of

91 years old - is also good television because behind the producer

who has the guts to broadcast this are 4,000 more babies being born

this year who are at risk of having their feet cut up unnecessarily -

and you could save them.

> We are here to nominate Doctor Ignacio Ponseti for the Lifetime

Achievement Award because he has truly given his life to these

crippled babies. His entire adult life, rapidly approaching a

century old, has been dedicated to achieving not personal goals for

his own fame and fortune because if that were the case, he and his

method would be world famous by now! But to achieving a happy life

minus the pain of deformed feet for thousands of babies world wide.

Abraham Lincoln said it best, " I can't think if my feet hurt. " If

ever a time in history demanded our future generations have clear

minds to think with, it is now.

>

> If awarded, Dr. Ponseti's wish is characteristically unselfish.

When asked, his only wish was that he be able to contribute more

than he already has, that his work be continued after he is gone

though the veins of his foundation: The Clubfoot Clinic Fund.

>

> This foundation supports research of clubfoot so perhaps the one

in a thousand babies currently born in the US each year with this

birth defect can be diminished if not eliminated completely

(scientists believe they have recently isolated the gene that causes

clubfoot); it supports the continued development of better treatment

options such as better casting materials and better designs of the

Foot Abduction Brace; it helps pay for treatments that otherwise

could not be afforded by economically challenged parents; it sends

supplies and braces to the poor and under-developed countries around

the world; it supports bringing in doctors from both America and

over seas to train with Dr. Ponseti and his colleagues in Iowa so

they may take the method home and continue its use; it funds the

development of clubfoot clinics in 3rd world countries where the

rate of clubfoot per capita is much higher than it is here in the US.

>

> Granted his wish, the sky would be the limit. More doctors could

afford to train under Dr. Ponseti; an educated medical community

could identify and eliminate from practice those who are performing

the method falsely; teleconferencing technology could be put in

place so doctors world wide could consult with one another directly,

sharing video images, photos, x-rays, advice, help and ultimately,

success. Public awareness in the general population could be raised

so eventually no child will have to suffer the consequences of

treatment that became outdated three years after their great-

grandparents came home from WWII - because through public

awareness, those methods would become as happily obsolete as Art

Mooney's 1948 top ten song.

>

> Additionally, although Dr. Ponseti did not request this, we would

like to organize a reunion of his patients, both those who have been

treated by his gentle hands in person, and those who were treated by

his method thanks to the few doctors who have taken the time to

learn it. We would like to publicly honor the man who gave our

children back their feet.

>

> We nominate Dr. Ponseti not as a small group of mothers who meet

at the coffee shop with too much time on our hands - but as

hundreds, if not thousands of mothers, and fathers, and

grandparents, aunts and uncles and children young and old who have

experienced clubfoot first hand, who have educated themselves, their

friends and their neighbors, who have continued for years now the

daunting task of speaking loudly that the world might finally listen

and finally eliminate the primitive treatments still in use today on

our young babies.

>

> We nominate Dr. Ponseti on behalf of the 45,000 (yes, forty-five

thousand) babies who will be born in the U.S. over the next ten

years who will suffer this birth defect.

>

> It's been close to sixty years. It's time this great American

story is told to the world. It is time the world knew medical

science has escaped the 1940's and moved in to the twenty-first

century.

>

> He was an immigrant escaping the Spanish Civil War arriving in

America the year we entered World War II. Now he is a 91 year old

doctor who still walks to work each day to treat his tiniest of

patients, because if not Dr. Ponseti, then who? The world must

learn and new young doctors must move in to fill the shoes, to

advance the method, to save the babies.

>

> We, the parents of children born with clubfoot implore you to

explore the rich and colorful life of this silent American icon so

he will not only get the recognition he deserves after half a

century of service, but also so no other baby will have to endure

the horrors of having their feet taken apart and put artificially

back together unnecessarily.

>

> If nothing else happens from our attempt to honor Dr. Ponseti with

the Lifetime Achievement Award, one very key thing has happened

right before your very eyes: you, the reader, are now informed.

>

> We the parents of children born with clubfoot have reached one

more person, who will, some day, tell two friends who will, someday,

tell two friends. And thus, the Ponseti Method has survived for

half a century one person at a time - and truly, that is probably

the only reward Dr. Ponseti would ever ask for, that the word be

spread, even if by only one mouth and one ear at a time. He doesn't

want awards, he wants to see an end to the senseless brutality our

trusted doctors are inflicting upon our tiniest of babies. Once

that is accomplished, then, maybe then, he will finally feel it is

safe for him to retire and pass his torch to the next generation

trusting we will keep it burning.

>

>

>

>

>

> Summary and Contact Information:

>

> There are two forms of clubfeet. The first is relatively minor

and known as Positional Clubfoot often due to a lack of amniotic

fluid in the uterus cramping the baby's development. The second is

Congenital Clubfeet, it is considered idiopathic, meaning doctors

are not entirely sure what causes it , but suspect it caused by an

unknown genetic factor coming in to play affecting the baby at

approximately 20 weeks post conception. There also appears to be a

slight inheritance factor involved as well, although not always.

Because clubfoot is not present in the early weeks of development

when most ultrasounds are performed, the condition is often not

discovered until the child's birth.

> The Ponseti Method of Clubfoot correction is superior to the

traditional method of treatment in that the baby's bones are gently

persuaded to move in to their natural position through a process of

systematic serial castings. No surgeries take place. No bones are

cut, broken, or pinned back together. No muscles or tendons are

stripped. No joints are penetrated. The method is completely non-

intrusive. Done correctly the foot is allowed to continue its

natural progression in to adulthood allowing these child to live

normal, active lives.

> With correction performed properly by a qualified physician and

with the parent's diligent and dedicated use of the FAB (Foot

Abduction Brace), babies treated by the Ponseti Method enjoy a 95%

success rate, i.e., 95% of the babies will never need a surgical

attempt at correction.

>

> For more information about the clubfoot deformity, please contact

the University of Iowa Clubfoot Clinic at (319)356-3469 or visit

http://www.vh.org/pediatric/patient/orthopaedics/clubfeet/index.html

for medical reports, articles, FAQ's, testimonials and photos.

Parents or family members of a clubfooted baby are urged to join the

nosurgery4clubfoot group at Yahoo! groups,

nosurgery4clubfoot for advice and support.

>

>

>

> This Nomination is sent to you by the Parents of Children Born

With Clubfoot and the children born with clubfoot who became the

victims of misinformed doctors, as well as the children who have

most blessedly been cured by the life's work of Dr. Ignacio

Ponseti - and all the clubfooted babies yet to come.

>

> Signed and Sincerely,

>

> ee and Chriss Reese of Oklahoma

> - parents of two clubfooted sons, who remains somewhat

crippled because we did not know yet about Dr. Ponseti, and Everett

who enjoys perfect feet thanks to Dr. Ponseti.

> Harvey and June Reese of Oklahoma

> - parents of one clubfooted child, Mark, who remains with

crippled feet because no one knew about the Ponseti Method.

> Leroy Reese of Oklahoma

> - father of one clubfooted son, Greg, who remains with crippled

feet because no one knew about the Ponseti Method.

>

> Others add your names like this too and grow the list

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

yeah, and blasting through them so fast I can't keep up with

you. You been drinking coffee today or what? lol!

At 05:12 AM 9/10/2005, you wrote:

>Constructive criticism? And just who the heck are you??? I'M

>JOKING! Very good points made - but I've been gone a few days

>scanning through nearly 200 messages right now and not sure where

>it's all sitting at the moment.

>s.

>

> 's Dr. Ponseti Essay REVISED.doc

>

>

>ee, Your essay is awesome. It captures Dr.

>Ponseti so well especially the part about him calming

>the babies and what happens in the cast room. That's

>exactly what he said to Alaya. I just have a few

>suggestions if you are ok with constructive critism.

>Please don't take it personally because I couldn't

>have done half as good as you did. You paint a

>wonderful picture and it's great to know the history.

>That being said here are some minor suggestions. I'm

>not sure the part about Dr. Brown is good, we don't

>want to bash all the other doctors just honor Dr.

>Ponseti.

>

>Also I think it's important to say that the method is

>very easy to learn and only requires a two day

>training course. In fact Cast techs in Uganda, South

>Africa and other developing countries also have a 95%

>success rate simply because they follow the method.

>It's not complicated. The jigsaw puzzle isn't

>complicated it's not a 1,000 piece puzzle, only a 26

>piece puzzle. It's very simple, but other doctors

>think they know best.

>

>Finally, I'm not sure about the length. It holds my

>attention because I'm personally involved, but do

>producers what a short to the point nomination. Anyone

>have experience in TV?

>

>

>Is this for the Three wishes show or is there another

>life time aceivement award?

>

>Thanks so much for your time and research and your

>wonderful presentation for the man we all love.

>

>Please add our names.

>Tony and Joanne Fuller, Findlay Ohio, parents to Alaya

>age 4, born with severe bilateral clubfeet, now with

>perfect feet. Treated by Dr. Ponseti in Iowa

>beginning at five days old with four casts. Corrected

>by 7 weeks of age.

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

yeah, and blasting through them so fast I can't keep up with

you. You been drinking coffee today or what? lol!

At 05:12 AM 9/10/2005, you wrote:

>Constructive criticism? And just who the heck are you??? I'M

>JOKING! Very good points made - but I've been gone a few days

>scanning through nearly 200 messages right now and not sure where

>it's all sitting at the moment.

>s.

>

> 's Dr. Ponseti Essay REVISED.doc

>

>

>ee, Your essay is awesome. It captures Dr.

>Ponseti so well especially the part about him calming

>the babies and what happens in the cast room. That's

>exactly what he said to Alaya. I just have a few

>suggestions if you are ok with constructive critism.

>Please don't take it personally because I couldn't

>have done half as good as you did. You paint a

>wonderful picture and it's great to know the history.

>That being said here are some minor suggestions. I'm

>not sure the part about Dr. Brown is good, we don't

>want to bash all the other doctors just honor Dr.

>Ponseti.

>

>Also I think it's important to say that the method is

>very easy to learn and only requires a two day

>training course. In fact Cast techs in Uganda, South

>Africa and other developing countries also have a 95%

>success rate simply because they follow the method.

>It's not complicated. The jigsaw puzzle isn't

>complicated it's not a 1,000 piece puzzle, only a 26

>piece puzzle. It's very simple, but other doctors

>think they know best.

>

>Finally, I'm not sure about the length. It holds my

>attention because I'm personally involved, but do

>producers what a short to the point nomination. Anyone

>have experience in TV?

>

>

>Is this for the Three wishes show or is there another

>life time aceivement award?

>

>Thanks so much for your time and research and your

>wonderful presentation for the man we all love.

>

>Please add our names.

>Tony and Joanne Fuller, Findlay Ohio, parents to Alaya

>age 4, born with severe bilateral clubfeet, now with

>perfect feet. Treated by Dr. Ponseti in Iowa

>beginning at five days old with four casts. Corrected

>by 7 weeks of age.

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

HA HA - sorry. I can literally type faster than I can speak (excusing a few

typos that is). Drinking coffee, ya, and just unwinding after a chaotic day of

family reunion stuff making me jitter.

s.

yeah, and blasting through them so fast I can't keep up with

you. You been drinking coffee today or what? lol!

[Guest guest]

A beautiful essay! Quite articulate! We too would like to be added on for

support.

Stacie and Jay Rich of Draper, Utah - Parents of one clubfooted son, Jordan

son, with a perfectly corrected clubfoot by a well trained Dr... King

in Tarzana, CA, thanks to Dr. Ponseti's brilliance.

number23 wrote:

So we share the same story - one child treated wrong, another child treated

right.

s.

Re: Re: 's Dr. Ponseti Essay REVISED.doc

I just read the essay and am sitting hear in tears, it is the best thing I have

ever read! I pray that someone out there finally listens and the word is spread.

I just returned last month from Iowa were my 14 year old daughter had surgery to

correct her " corrected " clubfeet (we didn't know this method existed when she

was born and she had 3 surgeries. Our youngest is just 4 months old and has been

lovingly and wonderfuly corrected by Dr. Ponseti, the greatest man on earth!

Please add our name! Also this may seem weird but has anyone thought of maybe

handing this esssay or something like it to Couric (sp?) when she is

outside doing the Today show in Manhattan? She is a mother and very pro being

informed when it comes to medical issues (I don't think she just limits it to

cancer issues). She is very powerful in todays news show arena, it might be

worth a try....

Moshe and Leah parents of

sha (3/3/90) very stiff and painful feet, due to surgeries to " correct "

bilateral clubfeet, Eli (4/24/05) unilateral clubfoot. Happy little boy with

fantastic feet corrected by Dr.Ponseti and 7 other children who all tell their

friends about a wonderful doctor in Iowa that fixed their brother and made their

parents smile again!

wrote:

ee--That was absolutely the most beautiful thing I've ever read.

You brought tears to my eyes. I'm crying like a baby, actually.

Please add our names also.

& Kline, from Pennsylvania, parents of Ava Kline, born

8/4/04 with a right club foot, now a beautiful straight foot thanks to

the Ponseti Method

[Guest guest]

A beautiful essay! Quite articulate! We too would like to be added on for

support.

Stacie and Jay Rich of Draper, Utah - Parents of one clubfooted son, Jordan

son, with a perfectly corrected clubfoot by a well trained Dr... King

in Tarzana, CA, thanks to Dr. Ponseti's brilliance.

number23 wrote:

So we share the same story - one child treated wrong, another child treated

right.

s.

Re: Re: 's Dr. Ponseti Essay REVISED.doc

I just read the essay and am sitting hear in tears, it is the best thing I have

ever read! I pray that someone out there finally listens and the word is spread.

I just returned last month from Iowa were my 14 year old daughter had surgery to

correct her " corrected " clubfeet (we didn't know this method existed when she

was born and she had 3 surgeries. Our youngest is just 4 months old and has been

lovingly and wonderfuly corrected by Dr. Ponseti, the greatest man on earth!

Please add our name! Also this may seem weird but has anyone thought of maybe

handing this esssay or something like it to Couric (sp?) when she is

outside doing the Today show in Manhattan? She is a mother and very pro being

informed when it comes to medical issues (I don't think she just limits it to

cancer issues). She is very powerful in todays news show arena, it might be

worth a try....

Moshe and Leah parents of

sha (3/3/90) very stiff and painful feet, due to surgeries to " correct "

bilateral clubfeet, Eli (4/24/05) unilateral clubfoot. Happy little boy with

fantastic feet corrected by Dr.Ponseti and 7 other children who all tell their

friends about a wonderful doctor in Iowa that fixed their brother and made their

parents smile again!

wrote:

ee--That was absolutely the most beautiful thing I've ever read.

You brought tears to my eyes. I'm crying like a baby, actually.

Please add our names also.

& Kline, from Pennsylvania, parents of Ava Kline, born

8/4/04 with a right club foot, now a beautiful straight foot thanks to

the Ponseti Method

[Guest guest]

Wow, whoever wrote the Ponseti Essay is awesome. What great writing. Ya know

what? I think that this essay needs to be sent into Dateline....or something.

It needs to get on television. If it gets on television, I bet something will

happen then.

3-28-01 perfect feet

3-1-05 clubfoot corrected by Ponseti method (Ponseti certified Dr.

in Michigan)

number23 wrote:

Thanks everybody - I'm going to leave this to 's disgression, she's the

one heading this up (at least I thought so!). You all do what you want with

it, like I said before.

s.

Re: 's Dr. Ponseti Essay REVISED.doc

ee, this is great!

I'd love to add my family's names to this as well.

and Houdek of Minneapolis, MN, - Parents of one

clubfooted son, Aleksander, with two beautiful feet thanks to the

Ponseti Method.

> , and Everyone,

> here is the email version for the Life Time Achievement Award

Essay - (I'll send an attachment version also for easier printing

and/or editing if you choose). I hope this is somewhere with in a

hundred miles of what you were anticipating. I asked Joyce Roller

for more specifics but have not heard from her, so I went with what I

had and am sending it before you think I'm blowing off my assignment

here. Actually, ask my husband, I've lost a lot of sleep, such a

responsibility, such an important undertaking!

>

> If it sucks I'm not offended if you scratch it out and start from

scratch. Woven throughout you will notice I used your key points.

Likewise, if there is any mis-information that needs corrected by all

means bring it to my attention, or if anyone has information prudent

to the cause that I totally over looked, that too should be brought

forth! Because there was not a page limit / word limit, I did not

limit myself or even attempt to. It's double spaced and justified

for easier reading. Nor did I bring a case history of any

particular patient in to it, aiming to be objective and factual, yet

tell the story in such a way as to convey the man's compassion and

the legitimacy of this birth defect. I told it from the standpoint

of " We the parents of children born with clubfoot " ....I do not mean

to exclude those here who are now adults who were born with clubfoot,

but the objective is to spread the word that new born babies will not

endure the tortures of misinformed doctors using out dated treatments.

>

> And with all that as my disclaimer, sitting here insecurely as I

toss out my wares for inspection, here is the actual essay as it sits

on my desk tonight.

> Blessings to all,

> ee

>

>

>

> Dr. Ignacio Ponseti Lifetime Achievement Award Essay

>

> by: ee Reese

> September 2005

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Five years after the Spanish military initiated an uprising against

their own Republican government sparking years of Civil War, lin

D. Roosevelt made his historic 3rd Inaugural Address to the Nation,

Pearl Harbor was obliterated, the famous Infamy Speech was delivered,

and the United States, having already suffered twelve years of

economic collapse on the heels of fighting World War I, entered World

War II.

>

> The year was 1941.

> It was the year a young man immigrated to America from Spain to

escape the post civil war ravages in his homeland.

>

> Historians suggest the Spanish Civil War which ejected this young

doctor on to American shores was merely a prelude to the World War

that he traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in effort to escape. They

further suggest the Spanish war was a testing ground, implying the

bombing of Guernica promoted advances in twentieth-century warfare

techniques and technology.

>

> Fortunately, this era brought forth amazing advances in medical

technique and technology as well - which also came from Spain.

>

> His name was Ignacio Ponseti. He came to America an immigrant, a

young doctor escaping a war torn country to enter a country that was

engaging into a war of epic proportions that very same year. It was

a small world after all.

>

> Ultimately he arrived at the University of Iowa College of Medicine

where his assignment was to perform certain follow up studies on

patients who had been treated for clubfoot according to the " modern "

medical standards of that time. Disappointed with his findings, the

young doctor dedicated his life to finding a better way to cure this

crippling birth defect.

> Only seven years after his arrival to the United States, post war

America was a very different place. Luxury automobile owners were

sporting the newly invented electric car windows. Art Mooney was

topping the charts with his hit song I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf

Clover; and fittingly with this new-found era of American

prosperity, our young Dr. Ponseti achieved his goal. In 1948,

through his years of dedicated hands on treatment and research, he

discovered, then refined, his non-surgical method for correcting

clubfoot.

>

> The glory of his work is that children no longer have to undergo

painful surgeries that most often result in a life time of painful

feet and subsequent surgeries.

> The horror is that fifty-seven years after developing his method,

the medical community at large continues to practice according to the

same techniques they used half a century ago when he started,

ignoring the Ponseti Method despite his decades of follow up studies

proving its 95% effectiveness rate when performed properly.

>

> In 1941 he was a Spanish Immigrant. Today, he is Professor

Emeritus Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Iowa College of

Medicine. The doctor, and his method, remain one of the world's

best kept secrets as the medical community continually refuses to

adopt or even recognize the validity of his method.

>

> As the parents of children born with this vulgar, crippling,

congenital birth defect, we consider this unacceptable.

>

> When he was 70 years old the University of Iowa, where he still

practiced, forced Dr. Ponseti to retire. Two years later, he

convinced the University to take him back despite his 'advanced'

age. He continued to perform his miracle on otherwise crippled

babies for the next fourteen years.

>

> When he was 84, he once again headed in to retirement - then the

internet happened. Word of his non-surgical method began to

spread. As parents discovered they had a choice, they began to

travel from across the USA and from across the ocean seeking out his

method for their children. Today, twenty years after the University

tried to force him to quit, parents are still traveling to see him,

or one of his few qualified associates. And finally, after fifty

odd years of dedicated service, the University of Iowa Hospital

finally recognized Dr. Ponseti's contribution to both their facility

and the medical field by naming a branch of their clinic after the

man who has given his life to giving children happy feet.

> Word continues to spread by mouth and internet about this

astonishing, dedicated man and his incredible journey that started

half a world away a half a century ago, but as the parents of

children born with clubfoot we face two major obstacles.

> First, to be completely candid, time is ticking. Dr. Ponseti

will celebrate his 91st birthday in June of this year (2005) yet he

continues to serve parents and babies in his clinic at the University

of Iowa - the oldest of hands gently repairing the youngest of

patients.

> " Do not cry, Baby. " The gentle, quiet words roll off his tongue in

a thick Spanish accent that immediately begins to sooth the anxious

child with their music. " If you cry, then I will cry, and then my

nurse will cry and then your Ma'Ma will cry. We will all be crying!

Do not cry, Baby. " and turning to the mother, " Here Ma'Ma, take your

baby, comfort him, I will not work on a crying baby, let him calm

down. " He points to the old rocking chair where he so often sits to

do his exams. The mother rocks her baby. The room smiles. The

mother, the father, the nurses, the students, and Dr. Ponseti, the

90 year old doctor pauses in his work for as long as it takes as if

this infant is the only infant in the world and time has stood still

for it.

>

> He continues to teach any doctor willing to learn; he consults

daily via email and telephone not only with other doctors, but

personally answering the calls of distraught parents and sorting

through the photos and videos parents send showing their baby's feet

at various stages of various treatments. He turns no one away.

> " You must come right away. " He is on the phone answering the

email plea sent with digital photos of a 19 month old boy with

deformed feet despite a year and a half of treatments and physical

therapy. " I can help " , says the doctor, " but there is no time to be

lost, you must come right away. You get here and I will see you. "

> Because of the previous nineteen months of substandard treatment

this child will never be completely corrected nor ever know what it

means to have pain-free feet despite Dr. Ponseti's best efforts. But

though his efforts, another believer is born, who spreads the word of

his miracles so no other child has to endure what her son must endure.

> Slowly, through the efforts of parents like us spreading the word

and insisting we have alternatives to surgery, the list of qualified

Ponseti Method physicians is growing annually. But time is ticking

and the method is at risk of being lost forever.

>

> The second obstacle we face is the medical world, sadly enough.

Through the internet the term Ponseti Method has gained popularity,

even if the actual method has not. Suddenly the clinics are flooded

with cheap imitations throwing around the words " Ponseti Method "

although they are not practicing the Ponseti Method in any true form.

These doctors are not skilled in the method, they have received no

formal training, and unfortunately, most parents don't know the

difference until it is too late, until they can no longer deny their

child is not getting any better and may in fact, be getting worse.

So they finally do their own research. They finally make that call,

and Dr. Ponseti says to come right away, because he always says come

right away, because he always holds out hope to the very end.

Because every baby becomes his baby.

> But these children do not always arrive in time to be rescued from

their horrible fate, because while clubfoot is nearly 100%

correctable, there is a limited window of opportunity that allows the

miracle to take place. Once the window is closed, the basic human

anatomy of the foot no longer lets a non-surgical correction happen.

And if the baby arrives to Ponseti's care too late, that baby will

forever suffer the consequences of inadequate care.

> With so many unqualified doctors suddenly claiming to use the

Ponseti Method, yet doing something quite different, the results are

predictably disastrous. Thus we risk that the method will be

eventually proven ineffective as these results are published and the

public and medical communities combined rally against the Ponseti

Method for it's ineffectiveness with out realizing this lack of

success is not due to the method not working, but due to gross and

incompetent misuse of the method by untrained physicians.

>

> And when the that happens, the method will be lost forever. There

are already claims that Ponseti's method is only perhaps 70, 60 or

50% effective - when in fact, qualified doctors who use the method

according to the protocol are consistently achieving 95% success

rates year after year after year.

>

> And again we say, as the parents of babies born with this ugly,

crippling birth defect, this is completely unacceptable.

>

> So how do we know? How is a parent who has just been dealt the

crushing news their baby has a major birth defect supposed to know

the difference when any doctor who has heard of clubfeet is suddenly

proclaiming to be advanced in the method of treating either though

Ponseti's method or more traditional modes? When a baby is born with

a birth defect, and one as physically ugly as clubfoot often is, a

parent is eager to relieve their own sense of guilt and their

child's suffering. They often are so eager they blindly trust the

local doctor - after all, he's a doctor, he should know. And when we

ask, when we finally get around to noticing something is wrong and we

ask, we are riddled with long technical answers that leave us feeling

inferior and confused and ashamed of ourselves for questioning his

superiority. So how do we know what to do?

>

> Through public awareness like this, for starters.

>

> In traditional treatments, the infant is often put through months

of serial casting where their foot is manually wrenched in to a

normal looking position and casted in to that shape as it grows. As

recent as the 1960's, Dr. Dennis Brown writes that he used mechanical

devices to wrench the foot in to position prior to casting. Somehow,

the Foot Abduction Brace (FAB) which is used in the Ponseti Method

became known popularly as the Dennis Brown Bar, or DBB. (We call it

the FAB, wanting no association between Dr. Ponseti's gentle care and

the horrific mechanical tortures used by Dr. Brown.)

> At the end of all this the child almost always undergoes corrective

surgery anyway because the bones remain misaligned. The surgery

involves taking the foot apart and reassembling it to look normal on

the outside even though it has been grossly disassembled and remains

deformed on the inside. The result is the bones are not allowed to

grow naturally as they should; scar tissue builds up; joints stiffen;

tendons are unable to stretch; more surgeries become necessary to

loosen a tendon, to scrape out scar tissue, to add steel pins or

remove steel pins. And still the foot remains misshapen and painful

to use, often not fitting in any type of regular shoe.

> The only thing the Ponseti Method has in common with the

traditional method of treatment is the term Serial Casting, which

implies a series of casts are applied to the child. In the 1940's

Dr. Ponseti discovered what all the others had overlooked - the

delicate infrastructure of the foot and the logical, sequential

placement of it's twenty-six bones. The bones in a clubbed foot are

all there, they're really OK, but like a jigsaw puzzle, they come

mixed up in the box and need put back together to make the final

picture. Traditional methods of correction do not account for this.

Traditional thinking seems to believe the bones are wrong, that the

bones need fixed. But they aren't wrong, and they don't need fixed,

they just need gentle hands and careful eyes placing them in the

correct spot like the intricate puzzle they are - not sawed upon to

fit where a doctor wants them or crammed in to positions where they

were not intended by nature to fit.

>

> Treated properly by the Ponseti Method, the tiny new born bones are

very gently, slowly and methodically manipulated by gentle hands in

to their proper alignment where they are expertly casted in to place

for a period of five to seven days. Again and again the process is

repeated over the course of approximately five weeks - each bone

individually identified, placed in its necessary position according

to a certain sequence of movements, and casted in to place,

maintained for approximately a week as the foot adapts.

> Most infants sleep through the process as the doctor finds the

correct bones and moves them carefully, and always sequentially, in

to their proper position (compared to the physical restraint babies

require using other methods). Others eat or play. And almost none

cry, because it is neither frightening nor painful. No drugs are

given, no shots, no restraints, the parents are always present,

holding or other wise comforting the baby, and if fear does creep in

and cause the child anxiety, the process is stopped until the baby is

again feeling calm and secure because an anxious child will be tense,

and tense bones and muscles cannot be properly aligned anyway. So

the whole Ponseti Method rests largely on maintaining a calm, happy

baby though the correction process. The entire visit is usually over

with in less than a half an hour.

>

> While we don't want Ponseti's method mixed up with any new-age

mentality that it ranks with acupuncture, herbs, aroma therapy or the

beating of drums during the twelfth hour of the full moon as Venus

enters the shadow of Mars - neither does this method belong to the

ranks of sterile surgical rooms, recovery rooms, antibiotics,

stitches, face masks, needles, tubes or electronic monitoring

devices.

> Completely scientific, completely proven, completely safe and

effective, the Ponseti Method is a very gentle and organic procedure

saving children from their crippling condition.

> The average infant born with clubfoot has corrected, fully

functional feet with in five to seven weeks of serial casting when

the casting is performed in this manner. In other words, this child

treated correctly by the Ponseti Method will have normal feet before

he is ever old enough to realize they were missing in the first place.

>

> When the manipulation of the bones is complete, the infant is

moved out of casting and in to the Foot Abduction Brace (FAB) - a

small pair of baby booties connected by a bar that runs between

them. Set at very specific degrees and measurements to match each

individual infant, the baby wears this brace for 23 hours a day for

the first three months of use. From there the amount of time the

baby wears the brace is gradually reduced to approximately twelve to

fourteen hours of wear - bed time - as the bones grow and experience

their natural hardening process. Unlike the unfortunate children

who might wear the casts for six to twelve months in the traditional

methods, babies who wear the FAB are not delayed in development.

They can roll over, crawl, and eventually cruise with the FAB on

their feet meeting every milestone on time. They still fit in to

normal cloths, cribs, high chairs and car seats with the FAB on their

feet, it becomes only a small extension of the child, for a small

part of their life.

>

> By the end of the treatment period, the feet have grown, the bones

have hardened as they do, and the correction is now maintained simply

by the natural growth and exercise of the foot. Because no bones

were cut, lengthened or shortened, no pins were surgically inserted,

no tendons were cut, no muscles were peeled back to expose the bones

for surgery - there is nothing to heal, nothing to infect, and

nothing to malfunction. The entire foot can now grow and function

completely normally for the rest of that individual's life.

>

> No surgical theaters. No anesthesia. No pain killers. No

antibiotics. No hospital stays. No IV's. No starving the infant for

hours prior to the operation. No separation of the infant from his

parents. Reduced cost of treatment. Ninety-five percent success

rate. The promise of normal, natural feet. No ugly scars on the

outside of the skin, or crippling scar tissue growing on the inside.

Fifty years of use and follow up studies to back it.

>

> And still, no one wants to listen.

>

> And still, as the parents of children born with clubfoot, as

citizens in the most medically advanced nation on this earth, we find

surgical treatment of clubfoot not only barbaric, but irresponsible,

negligent to the extent of malpractice...and completely unacceptable.

>

> Why then will no body listen?

> Because we're talking about feet? Because there is no drama

to a non-surgical method? Ask the parents of children born with

clubfoot if their child's birth defect lacks drama.

>

> According to the March of Dimes:

> Neural Tube Defects (NTDs) affect 1 per 2,000 births.

> Down Syndrome ranks at 1 in 800 births.

> Sickle Cell Anemia affects from 1 in 500 to 1 in 1000 depending on

racial factors.

> Cleft Palate affects 1 in 1000.

> And Clubfoot is calculated to affect 1 in 735 births annually in

the United States, with higher rates abroad.

> It can be estimated by 2002 population figures that Clubfoot

affects approximately 4,000 to 5,000 American newborn babies each

year. More than Neural Tube Defects. More than Down Syndrome.

More than Cleft Palate. More or the same as Sickle Cell Anemia

> Even the March of Dimes remains unaware as their website suggests

as many as 50% of the infants born with Clubfoot will require a

surgical correction; that's forty-five percent more surgeries than

necessary. The Ponseti Method averages a low 5 percent surgical rate.

>

> But these are feet we're talking about, right? Who wants to pay

any attention to feet when there are much more exciting and dramatic

(although less prevalent) birth defects to talk about?

>

> Why talk about a non-surgical medical procedure when there are much

more colorful, gruesome, theatrical surgeries to broadcast? Blood

sells, right? Images of oxygen masks, heart monitors, teams of

doctors in their frocks hunched over a patient who is cut wide open?

Or a condition with no known cure? That's good television. Sick

children with no cure in sight. Twisted feet torturously dissected

is good television. A non-surgical method created by a Spanish Civil

War Veteran in 1948 who still practices at the age of 91 years old -

is also good television because behind the producer who has the guts

to broadcast this are 4,000 more babies being born this year who are

at risk of having their feet cut up unnecessarily - and you could

save them.

> We are here to nominate Doctor Ignacio Ponseti for the Lifetime

Achievement Award because he has truly given his life to these

crippled babies. His entire adult life, rapidly approaching a

century old, has been dedicated to achieving not personal goals for

his own fame and fortune because if that were the case, he and his

method would be world famous by now! But to achieving a happy life

minus the pain of deformed feet for thousands of babies world wide.

Abraham Lincoln said it best, " I can't think if my feet hurt. " If

ever a time in history demanded our future generations have clear

minds to think with, it is now.

>

> If awarded, Dr. Ponseti's wish is characteristically unselfish.

When asked, his only wish was that he be able to contribute more than

he already has, that his work be continued after he is gone though

the veins of his foundation: The Clubfoot Clinic Fund.

>

> This foundation supports research of clubfoot so perhaps the one in

a thousand babies currently born in the US each year with this birth

defect can be diminished if not eliminated completely (scientists

believe they have recently isolated the gene that causes clubfoot);

it supports the continued development of better treatment options

such as better casting materials and better designs of the Foot

Abduction Brace; it helps pay for treatments that otherwise could not

be afforded by economically challenged parents; it sends supplies and

braces to the poor and under-developed countries around the world; it

supports bringing in doctors from both America and over seas to train

with Dr. Ponseti and his colleagues in Iowa so they may take the

method home and continue its use; it funds the development of

clubfoot clinics in 3rd world countries where the rate of clubfoot

per capita is much higher than it is here in the US.

>

> Granted his wish, the sky would be the limit. More doctors could

afford to train under Dr. Ponseti; an educated medical community

could identify and eliminate from practice those who are performing

the method falsely; teleconferencing technology could be put in place

so doctors world wide could consult with one another directly,

sharing video images, photos, x-rays, advice, help and ultimately,

success. Public awareness in the general population could be raised

so eventually no child will have to suffer the consequences of

treatment that became outdated three years after their great-

grandparents came home from WWII - because through public awareness,

those methods would become as happily obsolete as Art Mooney's 1948

top ten song.

>

> Additionally, although Dr. Ponseti did not request this, we would

like to organize a reunion of his patients, both those who have been

treated by his gentle hands in person, and those who were treated by

his method thanks to the few doctors who have taken the time to learn

it. We would like to publicly honor the man who gave our children

back their feet.

>

> We nominate Dr. Ponseti not as a small group of mothers who meet at

the coffee shop with too much time on our hands - but as hundreds, if

not thousands of mothers, and fathers, and grandparents, aunts and

uncles and children young and old who have experienced clubfoot first

hand, who have educated themselves, their friends and their

neighbors, who have continued for years now the daunting task of

speaking loudly that the world might finally listen and finally

eliminate the primitive treatments still in use today on our young

babies.

>

> We nominate Dr. Ponseti on behalf of the 45,000 (yes, forty-five

thousand) babies who will be born in the U.S. over the next ten

years who will suffer this birth defect.

>

> It's been close to sixty years. It's time this great American

story is told to the world. It is time the world knew medical

science has escaped the 1940's and moved in to the twenty-first

century.

>

> He was an immigrant escaping the Spanish Civil War arriving in

America the year we entered World War II. Now he is a 91 year old

doctor who still walks to work each day to treat his tiniest of

patients, because if not Dr. Ponseti, then who? The world must

learn and new young doctors must move in to fill the shoes, to

advance the method, to save the babies.

>

> We, the parents of children born with clubfoot implore you to

explore the rich and colorful life of this silent American icon so he

will not only get the recognition he deserves after half a century of

service, but also so no other baby will have to endure the horrors of

having their feet taken apart and put artificially back together

unnecessarily.

>

> If nothing else happens from our attempt to honor Dr. Ponseti with

the Lifetime Achievement Award, one very key thing has happened

right before your very eyes: you, the reader, are now informed.

>

> We the parents of children born with clubfoot have reached one more

person, who will, some day, tell two friends who will, someday, tell

two friends. And thus, the Ponseti Method has survived for half a

century one person at a time - and truly, that is probably the only

reward Dr. Ponseti would ever ask for, that the word be spread, even

if by only one mouth and one ear at a time. He doesn't want awards,

he wants to see an end to the senseless brutality our trusted doctors

are inflicting upon our tiniest of babies. Once that is

accomplished, then, maybe then, he will finally feel it is safe for

him to retire and pass his torch to the next generation trusting we

will keep it burning.

>

>

>

>

>

> Summary and Contact Information:

>

> There are two forms of clubfeet. The first is relatively minor

and known as Positional Clubfoot often due to a lack of amniotic

fluid in the uterus cramping the baby's development. The second is

Congenital Clubfeet, it is considered idiopathic, meaning doctors are

not entirely sure what causes it , but suspect it caused by an

unknown genetic factor coming in to play affecting the baby at

approximately 20 weeks post conception. There also appears to be a

slight inheritance factor involved as well, although not always.

Because clubfoot is not present in the early weeks of development

when most ultrasounds are performed, the condition is often not

discovered until the child's birth.

> The Ponseti Method of Clubfoot correction is superior to the

traditional method of treatment in that the baby's bones are gently

persuaded to move in to their natural position through a process of

systematic serial castings. No surgeries take place. No bones are

cut, broken, or pinned back together. No muscles or tendons are

stripped. No joints are penetrated. The method is completely non-

intrusive. Done correctly the foot is allowed to continue its

natural progression in to adulthood allowing these child to live

normal, active lives.

> With correction performed properly by a qualified physician and

with the parent's diligent and dedicated use of the FAB (Foot

Abduction Brace), babies treated by the Ponseti Method enjoy a 95%

success rate, i.e., 95% of the babies will never need a surgical

attempt at correction.

>

> For more information about the clubfoot deformity, please contact

the University of Iowa Clubfoot Clinic at (319)356-3469 or visit

http://www.vh.org/pediatric/patient/orthopaedics/clubfeet/index.html

for medical reports, articles, FAQ's, testimonials and photos.

Parents or family members of a clubfooted baby are urged to join the

nosurgery4clubfoot group at Yahoo! groups,

nosurgery4clubfoot for advice and support.

>

>

>

> This Nomination is sent to you by the Parents of Children Born With

Clubfoot and the children born with clubfoot who became the victims

of misinformed doctors, as well as the children who have most

blessedly been cured by the life's work of Dr. Ignacio Ponseti -

and all the clubfooted babies yet to come.

>

> Signed and Sincerely,

>

> ee and Chriss Reese of Oklahoma

> - parents of two clubfooted sons, who remains somewhat

crippled because we did not know yet about Dr. Ponseti, and Everett

who enjoys perfect feet thanks to Dr. Ponseti.

> Harvey and June Reese of Oklahoma

> - parents of one clubfooted child, Mark, who remains with crippled

feet because no one knew about the Ponseti Method.

> Leroy Reese of Oklahoma

> - father of one clubfooted son, Greg, who remains with crippled

feet because no one knew about the Ponseti Method.

>

> Others add your names like this too and grow the list

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Wow, whoever wrote the Ponseti Essay is awesome. What great writing. Ya know

what? I think that this essay needs to be sent into Dateline....or something.

It needs to get on television. If it gets on television, I bet something will

happen then.

3-28-01 perfect feet

3-1-05 clubfoot corrected by Ponseti method (Ponseti certified Dr.

in Michigan)

number23 wrote:

Thanks everybody - I'm going to leave this to 's disgression, she's the

one heading this up (at least I thought so!). You all do what you want with

it, like I said before.

s.

Re: 's Dr. Ponseti Essay REVISED.doc

ee, this is great!

I'd love to add my family's names to this as well.

and Houdek of Minneapolis, MN, - Parents of one

clubfooted son, Aleksander, with two beautiful feet thanks to the

Ponseti Method.

> , and Everyone,

> here is the email version for the Life Time Achievement Award

Essay - (I'll send an attachment version also for easier printing

and/or editing if you choose). I hope this is somewhere with in a

hundred miles of what you were anticipating. I asked Joyce Roller

for more specifics but have not heard from her, so I went with what I

had and am sending it before you think I'm blowing off my assignment

here. Actually, ask my husband, I've lost a lot of sleep, such a

responsibility, such an important undertaking!

>

> If it sucks I'm not offended if you scratch it out and start from

scratch. Woven throughout you will notice I used your key points.

Likewise, if there is any mis-information that needs corrected by all

means bring it to my attention, or if anyone has information prudent

to the cause that I totally over looked, that too should be brought

forth! Because there was not a page limit / word limit, I did not

limit myself or even attempt to. It's double spaced and justified

for easier reading. Nor did I bring a case history of any

particular patient in to it, aiming to be objective and factual, yet

tell the story in such a way as to convey the man's compassion and

the legitimacy of this birth defect. I told it from the standpoint

of " We the parents of children born with clubfoot " ....I do not mean

to exclude those here who are now adults who were born with clubfoot,

but the objective is to spread the word that new born babies will not

endure the tortures of misinformed doctors using out dated treatments.

>

> And with all that as my disclaimer, sitting here insecurely as I

toss out my wares for inspection, here is the actual essay as it sits

on my desk tonight.

> Blessings to all,

> ee

>

>

>

> Dr. Ignacio Ponseti Lifetime Achievement Award Essay

>

> by: ee Reese

> September 2005

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Five years after the Spanish military initiated an uprising against

their own Republican government sparking years of Civil War, lin

D. Roosevelt made his historic 3rd Inaugural Address to the Nation,

Pearl Harbor was obliterated, the famous Infamy Speech was delivered,

and the United States, having already suffered twelve years of

economic collapse on the heels of fighting World War I, entered World

War II.

>

> The year was 1941.

> It was the year a young man immigrated to America from Spain to

escape the post civil war ravages in his homeland.

>

> Historians suggest the Spanish Civil War which ejected this young

doctor on to American shores was merely a prelude to the World War

that he traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in effort to escape. They

further suggest the Spanish war was a testing ground, implying the

bombing of Guernica promoted advances in twentieth-century warfare

techniques and technology.

>

> Fortunately, this era brought forth amazing advances in medical

technique and technology as well - which also came from Spain.

>

> His name was Ignacio Ponseti. He came to America an immigrant, a

young doctor escaping a war torn country to enter a country that was

engaging into a war of epic proportions that very same year. It was

a small world after all.

>

> Ultimately he arrived at the University of Iowa College of Medicine

where his assignment was to perform certain follow up studies on

patients who had been treated for clubfoot according to the " modern "

medical standards of that time. Disappointed with his findings, the

young doctor dedicated his life to finding a better way to cure this

crippling birth defect.

> Only seven years after his arrival to the United States, post war

America was a very different place. Luxury automobile owners were

sporting the newly invented electric car windows. Art Mooney was

topping the charts with his hit song I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf

Clover; and fittingly with this new-found era of American

prosperity, our young Dr. Ponseti achieved his goal. In 1948,

through his years of dedicated hands on treatment and research, he

discovered, then refined, his non-surgical method for correcting

clubfoot.

>

> The glory of his work is that children no longer have to undergo

painful surgeries that most often result in a life time of painful

feet and subsequent surgeries.

> The horror is that fifty-seven years after developing his method,

the medical community at large continues to practice according to the

same techniques they used half a century ago when he started,

ignoring the Ponseti Method despite his decades of follow up studies

proving its 95% effectiveness rate when performed properly.

>

> In 1941 he was a Spanish Immigrant. Today, he is Professor

Emeritus Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Iowa College of

Medicine. The doctor, and his method, remain one of the world's

best kept secrets as the medical community continually refuses to

adopt or even recognize the validity of his method.

>

> As the parents of children born with this vulgar, crippling,

congenital birth defect, we consider this unacceptable.

>

> When he was 70 years old the University of Iowa, where he still

practiced, forced Dr. Ponseti to retire. Two years later, he

convinced the University to take him back despite his 'advanced'

age. He continued to perform his miracle on otherwise crippled

babies for the next fourteen years.

>

> When he was 84, he once again headed in to retirement - then the

internet happened. Word of his non-surgical method began to

spread. As parents discovered they had a choice, they began to

travel from across the USA and from across the ocean seeking out his

method for their children. Today, twenty years after the University

tried to force him to quit, parents are still traveling to see him,

or one of his few qualified associates. And finally, after fifty

odd years of dedicated service, the University of Iowa Hospital

finally recognized Dr. Ponseti's contribution to both their facility

and the medical field by naming a branch of their clinic after the

man who has given his life to giving children happy feet.

> Word continues to spread by mouth and internet about this

astonishing, dedicated man and his incredible journey that started

half a world away a half a century ago, but as the parents of

children born with clubfoot we face two major obstacles.

> First, to be completely candid, time is ticking. Dr. Ponseti

will celebrate his 91st birthday in June of this year (2005) yet he

continues to serve parents and babies in his clinic at the University

of Iowa - the oldest of hands gently repairing the youngest of

patients.

> " Do not cry, Baby. " The gentle, quiet words roll off his tongue in

a thick Spanish accent that immediately begins to sooth the anxious

child with their music. " If you cry, then I will cry, and then my

nurse will cry and then your Ma'Ma will cry. We will all be crying!

Do not cry, Baby. " and turning to the mother, " Here Ma'Ma, take your

baby, comfort him, I will not work on a crying baby, let him calm

down. " He points to the old rocking chair where he so often sits to

do his exams. The mother rocks her baby. The room smiles. The

mother, the father, the nurses, the students, and Dr. Ponseti, the

90 year old doctor pauses in his work for as long as it takes as if

this infant is the only infant in the world and time has stood still

for it.

>

> He continues to teach any doctor willing to learn; he consults

daily via email and telephone not only with other doctors, but

personally answering the calls of distraught parents and sorting

through the photos and videos parents send showing their baby's feet

at various stages of various treatments. He turns no one away.

> " You must come right away. " He is on the phone answering the

email plea sent with digital photos of a 19 month old boy with

deformed feet despite a year and a half of treatments and physical

therapy. " I can help " , says the doctor, " but there is no time to be

lost, you must come right away. You get here and I will see you. "

> Because of the previous nineteen months of substandard treatment

this child will never be completely corrected nor ever know what it

means to have pain-free feet despite Dr. Ponseti's best efforts. But

though his efforts, another believer is born, who spreads the word of

his miracles so no other child has to endure what her son must endure.

> Slowly, through the efforts of parents like us spreading the word

and insisting we have alternatives to surgery, the list of qualified

Ponseti Method physicians is growing annually. But time is ticking

and the method is at risk of being lost forever.

>

> The second obstacle we face is the medical world, sadly enough.

Through the internet the term Ponseti Method has gained popularity,

even if the actual method has not. Suddenly the clinics are flooded

with cheap imitations throwing around the words " Ponseti Method "

although they are not practicing the Ponseti Method in any true form.

These doctors are not skilled in the method, they have received no

formal training, and unfortunately, most parents don't know the

difference until it is too late, until they can no longer deny their

child is not getting any better and may in fact, be getting worse.

So they finally do their own research. They finally make that call,

and Dr. Ponseti says to come right away, because he always says come

right away, because he always holds out hope to the very end.

Because every baby becomes his baby.

> But these children do not always arrive in time to be rescued from

their horrible fate, because while clubfoot is nearly 100%

correctable, there is a limited window of opportunity that allows the

miracle to take place. Once the window is closed, the basic human

anatomy of the foot no longer lets a non-surgical correction happen.

And if the baby arrives to Ponseti's care too late, that baby will

forever suffer the consequences of inadequate care.

> With so many unqualified doctors suddenly claiming to use the

Ponseti Method, yet doing something quite different, the results are

predictably disastrous. Thus we risk that the method will be

eventually proven ineffective as these results are published and the

public and medical communities combined rally against the Ponseti

Method for it's ineffectiveness with out realizing this lack of

success is not due to the method not working, but due to gross and

incompetent misuse of the method by untrained physicians.

>

> And when the that happens, the method will be lost forever. There

are already claims that Ponseti's method is only perhaps 70, 60 or

50% effective - when in fact, qualified doctors who use the method

according to the protocol are consistently achieving 95% success

rates year after year after year.

>

> And again we say, as the parents of babies born with this ugly,

crippling birth defect, this is completely unacceptable.

>

> So how do we know? How is a parent who has just been dealt the

crushing news their baby has a major birth defect supposed to know

the difference when any doctor who has heard of clubfeet is suddenly

proclaiming to be advanced in the method of treating either though

Ponseti's method or more traditional modes? When a baby is born with

a birth defect, and one as physically ugly as clubfoot often is, a

parent is eager to relieve their own sense of guilt and their

child's suffering. They often are so eager they blindly trust the

local doctor - after all, he's a doctor, he should know. And when we

ask, when we finally get around to noticing something is wrong and we

ask, we are riddled with long technical answers that leave us feeling

inferior and confused and ashamed of ourselves for questioning his

superiority. So how do we know what to do?

>

> Through public awareness like this, for starters.

>

> In traditional treatments, the infant is often put through months

of serial casting where their foot is manually wrenched in to a

normal looking position and casted in to that shape as it grows. As

recent as the 1960's, Dr. Dennis Brown writes that he used mechanical

devices to wrench the foot in to position prior to casting. Somehow,

the Foot Abduction Brace (FAB) which is used in the Ponseti Method

became known popularly as the Dennis Brown Bar, or DBB. (We call it

the FAB, wanting no association between Dr. Ponseti's gentle care and

the horrific mechanical tortures used by Dr. Brown.)

> At the end of all this the child almost always undergoes corrective

surgery anyway because the bones remain misaligned. The surgery

involves taking the foot apart and reassembling it to look normal on

the outside even though it has been grossly disassembled and remains

deformed on the inside. The result is the bones are not allowed to

grow naturally as they should; scar tissue builds up; joints stiffen;

tendons are unable to stretch; more surgeries become necessary to

loosen a tendon, to scrape out scar tissue, to add steel pins or

remove steel pins. And still the foot remains misshapen and painful

to use, often not fitting in any type of regular shoe.

> The only thing the Ponseti Method has in common with the

traditional method of treatment is the term Serial Casting, which

implies a series of casts are applied to the child. In the 1940's

Dr. Ponseti discovered what all the others had overlooked - the

delicate infrastructure of the foot and the logical, sequential

placement of it's twenty-six bones. The bones in a clubbed foot are

all there, they're really OK, but like a jigsaw puzzle, they come

mixed up in the box and need put back together to make the final

picture. Traditional methods of correction do not account for this.

Traditional thinking seems to believe the bones are wrong, that the

bones need fixed. But they aren't wrong, and they don't need fixed,

they just need gentle hands and careful eyes placing them in the

correct spot like the intricate puzzle they are - not sawed upon to

fit where a doctor wants them or crammed in to positions where they

were not intended by nature to fit.

>

> Treated properly by the Ponseti Method, the tiny new born bones are

very gently, slowly and methodically manipulated by gentle hands in

to their proper alignment where they are expertly casted in to place

for a period of five to seven days. Again and again the process is

repeated over the course of approximately five weeks - each bone

individually identified, placed in its necessary position according

to a certain sequence of movements, and casted in to place,

maintained for approximately a week as the foot adapts.

> Most infants sleep through the process as the doctor finds the

correct bones and moves them carefully, and always sequentially, in

to their proper position (compared to the physical restraint babies

require using other methods). Others eat or play. And almost none

cry, because it is neither frightening nor painful. No drugs are

given, no shots, no restraints, the parents are always present,

holding or other wise comforting the baby, and if fear does creep in

and cause the child anxiety, the process is stopped until the baby is

again feeling calm and secure because an anxious child will be tense,

and tense bones and muscles cannot be properly aligned anyway. So

the whole Ponseti Method rests largely on maintaining a calm, happy

baby though the correction process. The entire visit is usually over

with in less than a half an hour.

>

> While we don't want Ponseti's method mixed up with any new-age

mentality that it ranks with acupuncture, herbs, aroma therapy or the

beating of drums during the twelfth hour of the full moon as Venus

enters the shadow of Mars - neither does this method belong to the

ranks of sterile surgical rooms, recovery rooms, antibiotics,

stitches, face masks, needles, tubes or electronic monitoring

devices.

> Completely scientific, completely proven, completely safe and

effective, the Ponseti Method is a very gentle and organic procedure

saving children from their crippling condition.

> The average infant born with clubfoot has corrected, fully

functional feet with in five to seven weeks of serial casting when

the casting is performed in this manner. In other words, this child

treated correctly by the Ponseti Method will have normal feet before

he is ever old enough to realize they were missing in the first place.

>

> When the manipulation of the bones is complete, the infant is

moved out of casting and in to the Foot Abduction Brace (FAB) - a

small pair of baby booties connected by a bar that runs between

them. Set at very specific degrees and measurements to match each

individual infant, the baby wears this brace for 23 hours a day for

the first three months of use. From there the amount of time the

baby wears the brace is gradually reduced to approximately twelve to

fourteen hours of wear - bed time - as the bones grow and experience

their natural hardening process. Unlike the unfortunate children

who might wear the casts for six to twelve months in the traditional

methods, babies who wear the FAB are not delayed in development.

They can roll over, crawl, and eventually cruise with the FAB on

their feet meeting every milestone on time. They still fit in to

normal cloths, cribs, high chairs and car seats with the FAB on their

feet, it becomes only a small extension of the child, for a small

part of their life.

>

> By the end of the treatment period, the feet have grown, the bones

have hardened as they do, and the correction is now maintained simply

by the natural growth and exercise of the foot. Because no bones

were cut, lengthened or shortened, no pins were surgically inserted,

no tendons were cut, no muscles were peeled back to expose the bones

for surgery - there is nothing to heal, nothing to infect, and

nothing to malfunction. The entire foot can now grow and function

completely normally for the rest of that individual's life.

>

> No surgical theaters. No anesthesia. No pain killers. No

antibiotics. No hospital stays. No IV's. No starving the infant for

hours prior to the operation. No separation of the infant from his

parents. Reduced cost of treatment. Ninety-five percent success

rate. The promise of normal, natural feet. No ugly scars on the

outside of the skin, or crippling scar tissue growing on the inside.

Fifty years of use and follow up studies to back it.

>

> And still, no one wants to listen.

>

> And still, as the parents of children born with clubfoot, as

citizens in the most medically advanced nation on this earth, we find

surgical treatment of clubfoot not only barbaric, but irresponsible,

negligent to the extent of malpractice...and completely unacceptable.

>

> Why then will no body listen?

> Because we're talking about feet? Because there is no drama

to a non-surgical method? Ask the parents of children born with

clubfoot if their child's birth defect lacks drama.

>

> According to the March of Dimes:

> Neural Tube Defects (NTDs) affect 1 per 2,000 births.

> Down Syndrome ranks at 1 in 800 births.

> Sickle Cell Anemia affects from 1 in 500 to 1 in 1000 depending on

racial factors.

> Cleft Palate affects 1 in 1000.

> And Clubfoot is calculated to affect 1 in 735 births annually in

the United States, with higher rates abroad.

> It can be estimated by 2002 population figures that Clubfoot

affects approximately 4,000 to 5,000 American newborn babies each

year. More than Neural Tube Defects. More than Down Syndrome.

More than Cleft Palate. More or the same as Sickle Cell Anemia

> Even the March of Dimes remains unaware as their website suggests

as many as 50% of the infants born with Clubfoot will require a

surgical correction; that's forty-five percent more surgeries than

necessary. The Ponseti Method averages a low 5 percent surgical rate.

>

> But these are feet we're talking about, right? Who wants to pay

any attention to feet when there are much more exciting and dramatic

(although less prevalent) birth defects to talk about?

>

> Why talk about a non-surgical medical procedure when there are much

more colorful, gruesome, theatrical surgeries to broadcast? Blood

sells, right? Images of oxygen masks, heart monitors, teams of

doctors in their frocks hunched over a patient who is cut wide open?

Or a condition with no known cure? That's good television. Sick

children with no cure in sight. Twisted feet torturously dissected

is good television. A non-surgical method created by a Spanish Civil

War Veteran in 1948 who still practices at the age of 91 years old -

is also good television because behind the producer who has the guts

to broadcast this are 4,000 more babies being born this year who are

at risk of having their feet cut up unnecessarily - and you could

save them.

> We are here to nominate Doctor Ignacio Ponseti for the Lifetime

Achievement Award because he has truly given his life to these

crippled babies. His entire adult life, rapidly approaching a

century old, has been dedicated to achieving not personal goals for

his own fame and fortune because if that were the case, he and his

method would be world famous by now! But to achieving a happy life

minus the pain of deformed feet for thousands of babies world wide.

Abraham Lincoln said it best, " I can't think if my feet hurt. " If

ever a time in history demanded our future generations have clear

minds to think with, it is now.

>

> If awarded, Dr. Ponseti's wish is characteristically unselfish.

When asked, his only wish was that he be able to contribute more than

he already has, that his work be continued after he is gone though

the veins of his foundation: The Clubfoot Clinic Fund.

>

> This foundation supports research of clubfoot so perhaps the one in

a thousand babies currently born in the US each year with this birth

defect can be diminished if not eliminated completely (scientists

believe they have recently isolated the gene that causes clubfoot);

it supports the continued development of better treatment options

such as better casting materials and better designs of the Foot

Abduction Brace; it helps pay for treatments that otherwise could not

be afforded by economically challenged parents; it sends supplies and

braces to the poor and under-developed countries around the world; it

supports bringing in doctors from both America and over seas to train

with Dr. Ponseti and his colleagues in Iowa so they may take the

method home and continue its use; it funds the development of

clubfoot clinics in 3rd world countries where the rate of clubfoot

per capita is much higher than it is here in the US.

>

> Granted his wish, the sky would be the limit. More doctors could

afford to train under Dr. Ponseti; an educated medical community

could identify and eliminate from practice those who are performing

the method falsely; teleconferencing technology could be put in place

so doctors world wide could consult with one another directly,

sharing video images, photos, x-rays, advice, help and ultimately,

success. Public awareness in the general population could be raised

so eventually no child will have to suffer the consequences of

treatment that became outdated three years after their great-

grandparents came home from WWII - because through public awareness,

those methods would become as happily obsolete as Art Mooney's 1948

top ten song.

>

> Additionally, although Dr. Ponseti did not request this, we would

like to organize a reunion of his patients, both those who have been

treated by his gentle hands in person, and those who were treated by

his method thanks to the few doctors who have taken the time to learn

it. We would like to publicly honor the man who gave our children

back their feet.

>

> We nominate Dr. Ponseti not as a small group of mothers who meet at

the coffee shop with too much time on our hands - but as hundreds, if

not thousands of mothers, and fathers, and grandparents, aunts and

uncles and children young and old who have experienced clubfoot first

hand, who have educated themselves, their friends and their

neighbors, who have continued for years now the daunting task of

speaking loudly that the world might finally listen and finally

eliminate the primitive treatments still in use today on our young

babies.

>

> We nominate Dr. Ponseti on behalf of the 45,000 (yes, forty-five

thousand) babies who will be born in the U.S. over the next ten

years who will suffer this birth defect.

>

> It's been close to sixty years. It's time this great American

story is told to the world. It is time the world knew medical

science has escaped the 1940's and moved in to the twenty-first

century.

>

> He was an immigrant escaping the Spanish Civil War arriving in

America the year we entered World War II. Now he is a 91 year old

doctor who still walks to work each day to treat his tiniest of

patients, because if not Dr. Ponseti, then who? The world must

learn and new young doctors must move in to fill the shoes, to

advance the method, to save the babies.

>

> We, the parents of children born with clubfoot implore you to

explore the rich and colorful life of this silent American icon so he

will not only get the recognition he deserves after half a century of

service, but also so no other baby will have to endure the horrors of

having their feet taken apart and put artificially back together

unnecessarily.

>

> If nothing else happens from our attempt to honor Dr. Ponseti with

the Lifetime Achievement Award, one very key thing has happened

right before your very eyes: you, the reader, are now informed.

>

> We the parents of children born with clubfoot have reached one more

person, who will, some day, tell two friends who will, someday, tell

two friends. And thus, the Ponseti Method has survived for half a

century one person at a time - and truly, that is probably the only

reward Dr. Ponseti would ever ask for, that the word be spread, even

if by only one mouth and one ear at a time. He doesn't want awards,

he wants to see an end to the senseless brutality our trusted doctors

are inflicting upon our tiniest of babies. Once that is

accomplished, then, maybe then, he will finally feel it is safe for

him to retire and pass his torch to the next generation trusting we

will keep it burning.

>

>

>

>

>

> Summary and Contact Information:

>

> There are two forms of clubfeet. The first is relatively minor

and known as Positional Clubfoot often due to a lack of amniotic

fluid in the uterus cramping the baby's development. The second is

Congenital Clubfeet, it is considered idiopathic, meaning doctors are

not entirely sure what causes it , but suspect it caused by an

unknown genetic factor coming in to play affecting the baby at

approximately 20 weeks post conception. There also appears to be a

slight inheritance factor involved as well, although not always.

Because clubfoot is not present in the early weeks of development

when most ultrasounds are performed, the condition is often not

discovered until the child's birth.

> The Ponseti Method of Clubfoot correction is superior to the

traditional method of treatment in that the baby's bones are gently

persuaded to move in to their natural position through a process of

systematic serial castings. No surgeries take place. No bones are

cut, broken, or pinned back together. No muscles or tendons are

stripped. No joints are penetrated. The method is completely non-

intrusive. Done correctly the foot is allowed to continue its

natural progression in to adulthood allowing these child to live

normal, active lives.

> With correction performed properly by a qualified physician and

with the parent's diligent and dedicated use of the FAB (Foot

Abduction Brace), babies treated by the Ponseti Method enjoy a 95%

success rate, i.e., 95% of the babies will never need a surgical

attempt at correction.

>

> For more information about the clubfoot deformity, please contact

the University of Iowa Clubfoot Clinic at (319)356-3469 or visit

http://www.vh.org/pediatric/patient/orthopaedics/clubfeet/index.html

for medical reports, articles, FAQ's, testimonials and photos.

Parents or family members of a clubfooted baby are urged to join the

nosurgery4clubfoot group at Yahoo! groups,

nosurgery4clubfoot for advice and support.

>

>

>

> This Nomination is sent to you by the Parents of Children Born With

Clubfoot and the children born with clubfoot who became the victims

of misinformed doctors, as well as the children who have most

blessedly been cured by the life's work of Dr. Ignacio Ponseti -

and all the clubfooted babies yet to come.

>

> Signed and Sincerely,

>

> ee and Chriss Reese of Oklahoma

> - parents of two clubfooted sons, who remains somewhat

crippled because we did not know yet about Dr. Ponseti, and Everett

who enjoys perfect feet thanks to Dr. Ponseti.

> Harvey and June Reese of Oklahoma

> - parents of one clubfooted child, Mark, who remains with crippled

feet because no one knew about the Ponseti Method.

> Leroy Reese of Oklahoma

> - father of one clubfooted son, Greg, who remains with crippled

feet because no one knew about the Ponseti Method.

>

> Others add your names like this too and grow the list

>

>

>

>