A baby girl born with an horrifically bent leg was healed by a surgeon who built a homemade splint – out of PLASTIC AND STICKY TAPE.
Tiny Sienna-Rose Webb was born with her right leg protruding upwards at the knee at a 90 degree angle after her muscles failed to develop properly in the womb.
Just one in 200,000 babies are born with malformed limbs which are caused when they have their legs straight instead of in the foetal position.
Sienna-Rose’s horrified parents Zack and Amy, both 20, begged doctors for help but were told the hospital did not have small enough leg splints.
They were warned Sienna-Rose faced months in a plaster cast and told her leg might never develop properly meaning she would walk with a limp.
But quick-thinking surgeon Irene van de Ploeg (corr) came to the rescue and fashioned a support using a plastic finger splint and a roll of surgical tape.
Incredibly, after just one week wearing the makeshift splint – which gradually bent her leg back into the proper position – Sienna-Rose’s leg was completely healed.
Relieved mum Amy, a gymnastics teacher from Coventry, said: ”She didn’t seem to be in any pain or discomfort. It obviously worried us a lot more than it did her.
”We couldn’t bathe her while she had the splint on and trying to change her nappy was really hard.
”Even when the splint came off we had to be careful how we held her.
”We want to say a really big thank you to Ms van de Ploeg, she has been absolutely amazing.”
Amy went into labour at Coventry’s University Hospital on May 15th, but it was only when she delivered 6lb 1oz Sienna-Rose that anyone realised something was wrong.
Break-dancing instructor Zack said: ”I spotted straight away that her knee wasn’t right.
We just wanted it corrected as quickly as possible.”
Stunned paediatric orthopaedic surgeon Ms van de Ploeg said she had never seen a case like it before.
She said: ”They don’t make leg splints that are small enough.
”But after some ringing round a theatre nurse managed to find me a finger splint at the back of a cupboard.
”They are quite sharp so I cut it up and wrapped it in single-sided tape to make sure it wouldn’t hurt her leg.
”I had never seen anything like this in nine years. Apparently it only affects one in every 200,000 babies.”
