Finding a Ponseti Certified Doctor

"Parents of infants born with clubfeet may be reassured that their baby, if otherwise normal, when treated by expert hands will have normal looking feet with normal function for all practical purposes. The well treated clubfoot is no handicap and is fully compatible with normal, active life." Ignacio Ponseti, M.D.

I cannot begin to tell you just how important it is to find a Ponseti Certified doctor to treat your child’s clubfoot even if it means you would have to travel to find one. If you ask me how important it is to find a Ponseti Certified doctor, without hesitation, I would say that choosing a Ponseti Certified doctor to an uncertified doctor to Ponseti method makes all the difference in the world. Let me share a bit of our story to explain why I say it is extremely important. As my husband and I didn’t know about our son’s clubfoot until birth, it didn't give us time to research and know more about proper clubfoot treatment. We were overwhelmed with the responsibilities of becoming new parents especially to a child with clubfoot. But we knew from the moment we were told about his clubfoot that we will do whatever it takes to cure his right foot so he can walk like any other lad. For some reason, the scans didn’t pick it up and doctors kept telling us that everything looked fine with our son.  Also for some reason, although I spent hours reading all the weekly news letters from babycentre and other sources about pregnancy and issues that we might have to face with a new born child, I’ve never come across the word "clubfoot", so we were left in the complete darkness. And when it happened, the little research my husband did about our son’s condition led us to believe that treatment has to be started as soon as possible and instead of surgery, a treatment called Ponseti method should be followed that involves series of casting.

 So we took our son to a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (KPJ Tawakkal Hospital) thinking that we could speed up his treatment and find good doctors if we choose a well-known private hospital over a public hospital where you may have to wait for over a month just to get an appointment with a specialist doctor.  The moment doctor explained to us that he would try series of casting and would only go for the option of surgery if it failed; we thought he was going to follow the Ponseti method. All the more so because his team led us to believe that he had done many wonderful jobs in curing babies with such deformities. Maybe they were talking about how he cured them through surgery or maybe they just wanted to convince us to start treatment with them. Allah knows best.

Half way through the treatment we knew that the doctor had very little knowledge about proper Ponseti Method if any (maybe just the fact that series of casting has to be preferred over surgery) because of the many deviation from the standard protocols that we became familiar with as time went by. The damage he did to my son’s foot was that he made a standard clubfoot to become a complex clubfoot. So yes, it is very important to find a Ponseti certified doctor. These are some of the things you could try to make sure your doctor is a Ponseti Certified doctor.

• ·         It is not uncommon for doctors to lie about their credentials. I’ve heard many stories where doctors have assured parents that they “know” Ponseti method but in fact that they know nothing about the proper Ponseti method of treatment. So don’t base your choice on what the doctor says alone. Check with every possible source that he is in fact a Ponseti Certified doctor. Ponseti International website provides a list of Ponseti Certified doctors in different countries. Check out this website. http://www.ponseti.info/ for more info. 

• ·         Learn as much as you can about the Ponseti treatment, so that you would know the minute the doctor deviates from the proper Ponseti Method.

• ·         The doctor should be able to answer all your concerns about clubfoot no matter how “silly” they are, and explain not just the immediate treatment but the big picture of the overall treatment including how to maintain and improve your child’s foot after the correction has been made.  (In our case, what triggered me to look for second opinion was when our previous doctor could not manage to answer all our concerns.)

• ·         Talk to other parents who have turned to Ponseti Method of treatment to get more information about how to find a Ponseti Certified doctor.

Although we are from Maldives, we are currently living in KL, Malaysia. Unfortunately neither country has Ponseti certified doctors. So after the Malaysian doctor messed up the treatment we ended up going to Bumrungrad International Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand to meet Dr. Amnuay Jirasirikul, who has been nothing less than amazing. Alhamdu lilaahi (All praise is to Allah) and thanks to Dr. Amnuay, my son now has a normal functioning foot. If you want to know more about our wonderful doctor, check out Bumrungrad International Website (http://www.bumrungrad.com/) or contact him via this email: ajirasirikul@gmail.com Send him your questions or pictures of your child’s foot, he will respond shortly.

A friend once told me that when it comes to health and medical treatment, you should go to the very best if there is a slightest chance that you can afford it. I didn’t believe it then. Now, almost a year after our clubfoot journey began, and with failed treatment, having to go abroad for proper medical care, I know that my friend turned out to be right and I turned out to be wrong. May Allah make the journey easy for all of us and to our precious little ones.

Clubfoot is Treatable!

Our clubfoot journey began the night our son was born in Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Malaysia. It was a surprise at birth because it was only picked up on new-born examination just after birth. Yes, we did ultrasound scans almost every month until birth and somehow it didn't show up on any of the scans we've had. At first I thought it was a good thing that I didn't know about his clubfoot before birth. I thought it would be too painful to deal with the news during my pregnancy but when our first treatment failed, I was deeply distressed that it didn't pick up in any of the scans which would have given us time to research about treatment options and be prepared emotionally and financially. It was also a surprise because there was no family history of clubfoot that we know of. The early weeks were a roller coaster of emotions and thoughts. 

 I read many materials on pregnancy and any possible birth defects that could happen to our first born but the word "clubfoot" was never mentioned in any of those articles. Following the birth of our son, our search for other voices came up empty. Of course there was information on basics, but the experiences and outcomes of raising a new-born with clubfoot was not enough. Therefore, the purpose of this blog is twofold: 1) to use it as a space for me to document our clubfoot journey to spread awareness; 2) hopefully help others who will take this journey.

The good news is that by the will of Allah the exalted, with the correct method, (Ponseti Method) clubfoot is treatable.  Yes, it is TREATABLE!