He came in towards the end of our first day. He was 15 years old and was limping. When he took off his shoe we saw why. His foot was deformed.
He told us that he had been in fire when he was a year old. His foot had burned so much that the tendons were destroyed. Then because the tendons were gone, when the burn healed and the skin grew back, the toes ended up healing on top of his foot as there was nothing to hold them in place. In other words, they were curled up over his foot.
“What was so amazing was that his chief complaint was his foot was itchy. He didn’t complain about his foot being deformed and he has been living with it for 15 years. That wouldn’t happen in the U.S.,” said the med student watching Dr. Amanda treat the teen.
The boy had come in with a severe case of athlete's foot. Because of the way the toes were, it was easy for fungus to grow.
"In the U.S. we would have removed the foot and fitted him with a prosthetic years ago. But here that won't be possible. Instead, I'll show him how to clean out the fungus and how to keep the area clean so it doesn't get itchy again," Dr. Amanda said.
What amazed all of us was how accepting the boy was to his condition. He didn't expect miracles or complain about the way the foot looked. He just wanted it to stop being itchy.
Related posts:
Haiti Day 1: Start of Medical Mission Trip
Haiti Day 2: Transforming a school to a medical clinic
Haiti Day 3: Venturing out to help in rural areas
Haiti Day 4: Sweating it out on New Year's Eve on a Mission Trip
Haiti Day 5: Final day of the International Medical Relief mission
Haiti: The boy with the foot
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