Today I shadowed Dr. Mardam-Bey, who specializes in pediatric orthopaedics. So much so, that we only saw two people over the age of 15.
Since Dr. Mardam-Bey sees so many children, he doesn’t perform much surgery. Pediatric orthopaedists don’t do much surgery since the kids can often recover on their own and don’t require more than a cast, splint or boot. The only person I met today who needed surgery was a 13 year old girl coming in for her pre-operation meeting. She had severe scoliosis that required surgery. Scoliosis is often caught earlier and be prevented from becoming bad. Her spine, however, had a curve of 66 degrees. Dr. Mardam-Bey explained that if she were not to have surgery now, it would increase at a rate of a degree a year, resulting in a 100 degree curve by the time she was 40.
My favorite client today was a 2 week year old baby. The little thing was so very small. maybe a little bigger than a football. She was club footed, meaning her feet bent differently than they were supposed to because of her muscle weakness. It was an easy fix, though. They put both of her feet in a cast to reshape how they should bend as well as strengthen the muscles. I got to help hold the little girl’s leg to help make it easier to put on the cast.
Another cool thing I got to experience today was watching the girl with scoliosis get her x-rays. Dr. Mardam-Bey positioned her in different styles to see different bends and shapes of the spine based on her different movements. After positioning her how he wanted, we would all retreat behind a wall with a window in it to protect us from radiation.
