There is an old saying in Slovakia: “Help yourself, God will help you too!” I don’t want to be religious, I just want to point out that if you put a little bit of your energy into some activity, you will start to see the results of your action and your decisions after a few months or years. Our journey with Leuško and my wife led us again to a renowned expert in the field of orthopaedics, MUDr. Karl Urbášek, Ph.D., who provided for us an MRI at the Brno Children’s Hospital. We had our first appointment in October 2022, but two days before the procedure, our son got ill and we had to postpone. An MRI is a common examination where an older child or an adult should not be worried about any discomfort, but for babies this examination happens under complete anaesthesia.
Sometime in November, a month later, we were travelling to Brno for the anticipated MRI. We were admitted to the hospital on Sunday and we had a very good experience with the approach of the nurses and the ward where my wife and son were about to spend the next two nights. We had to stay overnight, because the following morning Leo had to be under close supervision of the doctors and nurses. I won’t describe all the details here, but it was important because he had to be in the schedule with children, who were gradually being prepared for anaesthesia before the MRI. That day, my wife and I were apprehensive and we both deeply hoped that Leuško would wake up without any problems. I arrived at the hospital a few minutes before the procedure and saw him being taken to the MRI. My wife and I just silently hugged each other in tears. Again we counted the longest minutes, where you just wish for the time to speed up but it feels like slowing down.
After about an hour, we finally saw our little one and we were so relieved to see he was back. I had to leave but I asked my wife to keep me updated. She later texted me that Leuško had woken up and it was the same little fiddling and curious child. We were very happy for him and at the same time we were preparing for the next night as they kept him for observation. The next morning, we managed all the obligations in the hospital and at the same time we paid for all the costs associated with the child’s diet and accommodation as well as with the procedure itself. We have carefully kept all these bills and we are pleasantly surprised that we received a reimbursement of approximately 90% of the costs from the insurance company. In the end, we received a medical report on the condition of our little one’s leg by e-mail and post. They confirmed that instead of amputation, with the cooperation of POHLIG company, they will try to make a custom-made leg using the muscle mass in the leg. It was time to know the true diagnosis of our little boy.
DIAGNOSIS: Tibial hemimelia 1. dx with complete tibial aplasia