A young girl’s only hope of survival after getting bone cancer was to have her leg amputated — then reattached backward.
In August 2017, just before her seventh birthday, Amelia Eldred’s leg became mysteriously swollen. Her leg remained swollen for two weeks before an X-ray revealed a cancerous tumor on her left femur, says her mother, Michelle Eldred, from Tamworth, Staffordshire.
“I can’t put into words how I felt that day,” Michelle tells Caters News. “My world just stood still, to think my daughter was about to embark on such a terrible journey . . . was horrific.”
At Birmingham Children’s Hospital in the UK, an MRI and biopsy confirmed Amelia had osteosarcoma, and she began chemotherapy in September. But by November the tumor hadn’t budged. Their only option was to undergo either a full leg amputation or a procedure called a rotationplasty.
The unusual surgery involves severing the leg and removing the cancerous portion, then reattaching the lower leg backward, creating a new knee joint at the angle that bends forward instead of behind. Doctors say the drastic and rare procedure would make it easier for Amelia to use a prosthetic leg. In addition, rotationplasty would allow her bones to continue to grow, and would preserve the main nerves in her lower leg, according to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“It’s quite a controversial procedure that she had,” says 46-year-old Michelle, a civil servant. “You definitely double take at it if you have never seen it before because her foot is backwards.”
Regardless of their decision, Amelia would need four more cycles of chemo and six more months of cancer drugs.
“As a family, we knew that she had a much higher chance of a long and fulfilling life if the procedure went well,” Michelle says. “In the end we decided on rotationplasty because it’s what Amelia wanted.”
She said Amelia’s brave decision was inspired by a video she saw on YouTube of a dancer who had the same operation.
“Amelia said she wanted to be like her,” she says. “As she went into surgery, the last thing she said was ‘Bye bye tumor, see you loser!’ ”
Despite “a few difficult years” for the family, the good-humored girl is “too driven to let her prosthetic get in the way of everything she likes doing,” according to Mom. Now, the 9-year-old who loves dance, sports and “everything outdoors,” is as active as ever: “We go swimming, trampolining, ride donkeys . . . play football, roller skate and ride bikes.”
Michelle says, “[Amelia] smiles and tells me that she can do anything if she works hard enough, and also tells me that there ‘is nothing wrong with being different, Mom. Normal is boring!’ ”