Living with clubfoot did not stop me from pursuing my dream

Milton Ilahuya, a paralympian. [Courtesy]

Growing up, Milton Ilahuya's dream was to be part of a Kenyan football team.

“When growing up, I wanted to be a Kenyan Ronaldo, playing for my country's football team is all that I dreamed of but later I came to the reality that I cannot walk straight like other kids around me did,” says Ilahuya.

He was born with clubfoot condition, a deformity that could not allow him to move around with the support of his legs because his feet were folded inwards at the ankle.

Clubfoot also known as talipes is a condition where a baby is born with a foot or feet that is turned in and under. It can affect one foot or both feet pointing inwards and the sole facing backwards.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, in clubfoot, the tissue connecting the muscles to the bone (Achilles tendon) is shorter than usual. Clubfoot is a fairly common birth defect and is usually an isolated problem for an otherwise healthy newborn.

According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), one infant in every 1,000 live births will have clubfoot, making it one of the more common congenital (present at birth) foot deformities.

While clubfoot is not painful during infancy if it is not treated, the foot will remain deformed, and the child will not be able to walk normally. However, with proper treatment, the majority of children can enjoy a wide range of physical activities with little trace of the deformity.

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Most cases of clubfoot are successfully treated with nonsurgical methods that may include a combination of stretching, casting, and bracing and treatment usually begins shortly after birth, according to the AAOS.

Ilahuya says that this condition was a shock to his parents. They did everything they could to get the abnormality fixed.

“At eight days, I went through my first corrective surgery at Cure International Kijabe,” said Ilahuya. The surgery did not solve the problem entirely and, as he grew up, he had to learn to move around with the aid of a wheelchair.

After his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education in 2014, he opted for amputation which was among the options he was to choose from.

He explains that doctors told him that as much as corrective surgery was an option, at the end of the day, his lower limbs would get weaker as he grew because they would not grow at the same rate as his body.

“After the amputation, I got a pair of prosthetic legs and for the first time in my life, I felt tall. I had to learn to do things differently since I was walking with assistive devices rather than moving with the aid of a wheelchair,” said Ilahuya.

He says that this enabled him to pursue his dream of being a sportsperson.

“I ended up playing for the junior wheelchair lawn tennis team. I was selected to play on the junior Kenya team while in high school, after that, I joined the wheelchair basketball team and became a Paralympian,” said Ilahuya.

According to Branford Wesley, a paediatrician at Cure International Kijabe, clubfoot is mainly idiopathic which means that the cause is unknown.

“Genetic factors are believed to play a major role, and some specific gene changes have been associated with it but this is not yet well understood because it appears to pass down through families,” Dr Wesley says.

He says that most people think that clubfoot is caused by the fetus’s position in the uterus but that is not the case.

“Sometimes it may be linked to skeletal abnormalities such as spina bifida cystica or a developmental hip condition known as developmental dysplasia of the hip (DHH)," Dr Wesley says.

He adds that the lack of enough amniotic fluid during pregnancy may increase the risk of the unborn baby developing a clubfoot condition.

According to Dr Wesley, clubfoot in newborns may be prevented when the expectant mothers keep away from smoky environments or avoid smoking.

He advises that, in general, expectant women should keep away from alcoholic drinks and drugs that are not prescribed by doctors or specialists.