For over five decades, Savithri silently endured the pain and suffering of her life. Not just the physical pain, but the discomfort of having to live with a contorted physique and an awkward gait bestowed upon by her uneven limbs. Today, she is immensely happy that it is a thing of the past.
Since her childhood, Savithri (55), a resident of Patnool Street here, had led a miserable life due to antalgic gait, a way of cringed walking to avoid pain caused by uneven weight bearing. The deformity is caused when one of the limbs remains short that causes pain in the hip and an uneven walk. Her left hip joint is normal, while the right one was dysplastic. Strangely enough, it had not occurred to the housewife to get the defect rectified, for more than half of her life. Her husband K.. Pandurangaiah, who runs a small shop in Chinna Bazar, decided to go for surgery after she complained of severe pain in the last few months.
After a lot of medical consultations, it was only last week that she got her deformity rectified by undergoing surgery. “I was used to this kind of walking and I avoided surgery simply out of fear, until the pain and agony became too much to bear. I could not believe my eyes that I am walking straight now,” Ms. Savithri told The Hindu , holding the walker firmly.
“This case involved two complications. One is the proximal migration of trochanter, which had to be brought down to its place. The other was the absence of the acetabulum cup in the hip, which had to be created. As she is short, her hip joint is also small, for which we had to import special implants from the US,” explained M. Rajesh, consultant joint replacement surgeon at the Sri Chakra Hospitals, who performed the surgery.
Savithri continues with her uneven walk even today, forgetting that her deformity has vanished, until someone points it out to her...!
