Our daughter Eizabella Lauran was born on October 1, 1999 in Boise, ID with severe bilateral clubfeet. She is our first child, and we knew nothing about childbirth let alone clubfeet. The on call orthopaedic Dr. casted her when she was 8 hours old. He is a very nice man, who did a very good job of explaining clubfeet and the whole process to us. The words I kept hearing from him were "tough feet, tight feet, and very severe feet." In addition, he said that girl, bilateral feet were the toughest to 'fix." My husband and I cried off and on for the first day. It was so hard to have our new little baby in casts, we wanted so much to feel and touch her feet. The Dr. told us to call his office and make an appointment for the first cast change in a week.

Eizabella had five sets of casts and her feet got very little movement. Our Dr. informed us that she would require surgery at 6 months of age. remember the dread of going to the cast changes every week. She would scream, and we would always hear the same thing "these a really tough feet, they are so tight and they aren't moving like we need them to." So, she was headed for surgery in March -2000.

We had read about the "Ponseti" method on the Internet, but assumed it was the same casting procedure that we had already been through. We asked our Dr. if he knew of the Ponseti method and he said yes, it was just 16 another way of treating clubfeet." He mentioned that they really "crank" the foot and the x- rays afterwards don't "look right." So, we decided against looking into it further. I posted an e-mail on the TIPS sight, which is a support group on the Internet for parents with children w/clubfeet. A gentleman by the name of Martin responded to my e-mail. I was stating how upset I was with the plan for surgery, and he wrote to tell me about the 'Ponseti" method and gave us Dr. Ponseti's e-mail address. My husband and I e-mailed Dr. Ponseti pictures of our daughter's feet. He responded THAT DAY that he felt he could fix her feet with manipulation and 4 to 5 plaster casts. We were still skeptical - what was so different about his manipulation and casting? If he could avoid surgery, why didn't every Dr. treat clubfeet this way? Dr. Ponseti then called our home on a Saturday from his home. We were very impressed that he would call us himself, and on his own time. He answered all of our questions with patience and in great detail. He was never defensive when we brought up the criticisms of his method. He suggested that we call Martin as he was skeptical at first as well. After speaking with Dr. Ponseti and Martin, we decided to head to Iowa 3 days later.

Dr. Ponseti and his staff were so professional and kind. He spent an hour showing us his method on a model of a clubfoot before he began any kind of manipulating. He then looked at her feet and said, "these are beautiful feet - I think I can fix them." Never before had we heard her feet referred to as beautiful - It melted our hearts. It made so much sense the way he explained the movement of the foot and how his manipulation works. One thing we noticed right off was that the manipulation was very gentle - no "cranking" was involved at all. She just watched him move her feet and never cried once while he was manipulating - much different than our experience in Boise. Eizabella was then casted and we were to return in 5 days for the next treatment. Her first set of casts looked completely different than her previous ones at birth. We felt good about this, because at least it "looked different" therefore, it might work. When we returned and the casts were removed - we were astonished! Her feet moved more in 5 days than they had in 5 weeks with our prior Dr. After 5 sets of casts her feet were absolutely beautiful and straight! We couldn't believe our eyes. NO SURGERY REQUIRED! She had the heel cord tenatomy done on the 30 th of December followed by her final set of casts. The casts will come off in about 3 weeks and she will wear her brace for 3 months all of the time and at nighttime and naps until she is 4 years old. A small inconvenience for the ability to walk, run and play pain free!

We cannot express our gratitude for Dr. Ponseti and his staff. We thank God everyday for bringing us to him. He is more than an incredibly skilled Dr. - he is a compassionate caring individual who truly cares about children. If any parent wishes to contact us with questions or needs any information on the "Ponseti" method, we would be honored. We feel it is our responsibility and mission to inform parents that there is an alternative to surgery. We are willing to do whatever it takes to get the word out!

With Complete Gratitude,

Jason, Becky & Eizabella Cresto

e-mail address: crestocrew@qwest.net
Phone: (801) 302-5820
Address: 11065 S. Sir Barton Lane
South Jordan, UT 84095

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