Little girl had part of her amputated leg reimplanted backwards

Did you read the title of the story and found it a little strange or was it just thinking that it is a tragic case of medical error? Don't worry, because it was nothing like that, no! In fact, what happened was that the girl had her leg amputated, but the surgeons managed to save part of the limb and redeploy it so she can dance again one day. Let us tell the case better!

Overcoming

According to Helen Machin of Birmingham Live, the little girl named Amelia Eldred is from Tamworth, England, and is 7 years old. Like most girls her age, she has always enjoyed swimming, cycling, running, and doing all sorts of activities. However, Amelia was diagnosed with an osteosarcoma - a bone-striking cancer - in her left femur and, after a series of chemotherapy sessions, had her leg amputated in January.

But as she went through this painful process, Amelia told the doctors that one day she would like to dance again. So, since the girl's tumor was in the thigh region, what the surgeon team did was to amputate the entire left leg and reuse the cancer-free lower part.

More specifically, the surgeons reimplanted the healthy leg into Amelia's little body, but backwards. And that was not a grotesque medical error. This procedure is known as “gyroplasty” and will allow Amelia to recover and receive a prosthesis when her ankle resembles the knee joint and her foot supports the mechanical limb.

According to Helen, the recovery process will still be quite long and arduous, as Amelia will still need to undergo other chemotherapy sessions and treatment by the end of the year. The little girl is already learning to use her "new" leg - as you can see in the following video, shared on Twitter by BBC Midlands - and the expectation is that if everything goes as expected, Amelia will be able to dance again one day.

Girl, 7, from Tamworth, has leg reattached backwards by @ROHNHSFT after cancer surgery so one day she may dance again. pic.twitter.com/ZbQZ79NYuJ

- BBC Midlands Today (@bbcmtd) April 25, 2018

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