On Milton’s list, is 11-year-old Maddison, who was rushed to A&E after a road traffic accident. Her thigh bone has been completely broken in half.
Mum Joanne reflects on the moment she realised Maddison had been in an accident: “I remember hearing my husband shouting up the stairs that Maddison had been run over by a car. I threw the clothes on I am wearing now and ran to get her.”
Maddison had been sat on a curb when her leg was run over by a car.
“I was crying a lot, I was struggling to speak as I was in so much pain and shock,” Maddison adds.
It is important that Milton repairs the break correctly to not cause deformity, so that it won’t affect Maddison in the future.
Emotions are high as Maddison is wheeled to surgery.
Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Milton Ghosh explains: “For Maddison, this broken bone, which is essentially a cylinder, it’s broken clean in the middle. We want to make sure when we put the cylinder back together we don’t have the leg pointing in the wrong direction. Not only the correct length of the limb but the rotation as well. Otherwise it will effect Maddison’s walking.”
Helping Milton supervise, is Paediatric surgeon Phil Henman.
Maddison’s operation is to stabilise the bone, putting a pin through the centre of the bone putting in screws to lock it in position.
A guide wire is inserted into Maddison’s bone, it acts as a pathfinder for the pin that will join the pieces together.
Surgical registrar Rebecca Critchley, just has an 8.2mm bone cavity to pass the wire along and the pressure is on.
Rebecca taps the guide wire in place, making sure it is past the fracture.
The team moves on to the most challenging part of the surgery – drilling a wider channel so a metal pin can be inserted. There is no room for error.
“When it binds, it can cause the full femur to twist or cause a fracture,” Milton explains.
The pin is inserted in place and secured with locking screws, to keep the bone straight.
Milton explains the surgical advancement: “Before we had all these pins and rods, kids would end up in traction for 6 to 12 weeks until the fracture gummed up. Now we want to get kids up and walking as soon as possible.”
Once Maddison is able to bend her knee, she will be up walking after surgery.
Maddison’s fractured healed quickly, she managed to walk with crutches for her first day of secondary school.
