The result: a grateful teenager
Our traumatologist Dr. Fritz Meiswinkel writes: Madai is a bright, pretty 14-year-old from a village near the town of Andahuaylas (a 5-hour drive from Curahuasi). Her left arm has been “different” from the right since early childhood. The parents, of course, were extremely worried. 6 years ago they took their daughter to a big hospital in Lima. But they did not want to or could not help her there.
With further growth, an increasing protrusion developed near the elbow that was eventually so prominent that the skin opened up. In addition, a palpable protrusion formed further down the hand under the skin. The family sought their salvation in a private clinic. The doctors suggested surgery, but the family could not afford the price.
It doesn’t take much imagination to picture the girl’s psychological distress. An ugly bump on the elbow with a chronic wound is not what a teenage girl wants.
Finally, the family traveled through the mountains to Curahuasi to the Diospi Suyana Hospital. Pediatrician Dr. Oliver O`Neill immediately involved our traumatologist.
Radiographs showed a tumorous change in the area of the shortened and crookedly grown ulnar shaft as well as a chronic luxation (dislocation) of the radial head. In the context of a benign cystic tumor of the ulnar shaft, malgrowth occurred. The ulna grew crookedly and only slowly, the radius probably grew backwards out of the elbow joint at “normal” speed.
The operation lasted four hours. The spoke (radius) was shortened by removing the spoke head. Dr. Meiswinkel then resected a large portion of the cystic tumor of the ulna and stabilized the result with a plate. The detached tendon of the biceps muscle was attached to the remaining radius. And the excess skin could be cut away, of course. The bottom line is that the procedure was a complete success. The question must be allowed, however, why the doctors in Lima did not perform the operation six years ago.
