Martin Egbert and his wife, Allyson, are trying to encourage more doctors to use the Ponseti method to treat clubfoot. Zou Hong / China Daily

A Las vegas couple wants world to know clubfoot is correctable

Martin Egbert is a very successful businessman. He talks slowly in a low, but firm and confident voice and has a lot to be confident about. Over the past 20 years, the Las Vegas real estate developer has built more than 10,000 apartments, gaining a high reputation in the industry.

But his family's life came crumbling down when his son Joshua was born with clubfeet. The little one's feet were twisted down and inward like golf clubs, and the deformity was baffling because his five older brothers had not suffered the same problem.

"Will he be able to walk? Will he be crippled? Will this make his life very different? It was something very concerning to both of us," Egbert says.

When Joshua was two weeks old, Egbert's wife, Allyson, learned about the Ponseti treatment method conducted at the University of Iowa. Within two months, Ignacio Vives Ponseti, who developed the treatment, had significantly helped their son and now he is a healthy 12-year-old boy.

The Egberts are now traveling the world helping families who are suffering from the same dilemma, and in August passed through China.

Clubfoot is the leading cause of muscular-skeletal disability in children, and each year, 200,000 babies are born with clubfoot worldwide - about 5,000 in the United States and 20,000 in China.

In 2006, the University of Iowa established the Ponseti International Association (PIA), which comprises orthopaedic specialists and other professionals, in an effort to help those suffering around the world.

Till now, PIA has provided training to doctors in 67 countries, including 15 doctors in China, and distributed medical materials in major languages.

But because of geographical and economical reasons, at present, more than 1 million children are still living with untreated clubfoot in the world, according to the University of Iowa Foundation.

Since their son received the special Ponseti treatment, the Egberts have become very involved in the promotion, traveling the world and offering advice to doctors and parents.

The Egberts came to China to join the PIA Training Course and Workshop, arranged by Zhao Li from Shanghai Jiao Tong University's School of Medicine, who is also a member of PIA medical advisory board.

PIA provides teaching faculties for these programs, and the couple also helps organize lectures about the benefits of the treatment.

"This needs to be told," Allyson Egbert says. "In some parts of the world, some parents do not realize that this deformity is fixable. Children there grow up, walking on their arms, legs dragging their feet and never coming normal," says Allyson.

The couple says that they would continue their job with PIA and encourage more doctors to use this treatment.

"When you experience this, you do not want others to experience the same thing," Allyson says.

"We felt lucky to find the treatment, and others should also know about is as well."

This method is a low-tech, non-surgical clubfoot treatment, with a documented full-correction rate of more than 95 percent.

Children with clubfoot are fitted with a specially designed plaster cast as soon as possible. As the youngster grows, the cast is adjusted every three to five weeks.

"The Ponseti method is based on a stretching of the ligaments and tendons, and then placing a cast in the correct position. If you start treatment with a newborn, with four to five casts changed every four to seven days, the foot is fully corrected when the patient is six weeks of age, and it will be corrected for the life of the patient," says Jose Morcuende, president of PIA.

Previously, a more often used protocol was extensive surgery, which corrects the deformity by opening up the back and front of a baby's feet and lengthening or dividing all structures that were tight.

However, because of multiple surgeries, the old way has a lot of short- and long-term complications, which can occur later in their lives.

Besides a lower risk, the expense for Ponseti method is less as well.

"In the US, surgical method needs $20,000 to $30,000. But the Ponseti method only requires $2,000 to $3,000," says Martin Egbert, who now is a member of PIA board of directors.

In August 2006, the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed the Ponseti method as the "most successful, non-invasive, and cost-effective" clubfoot treatment and urged its use worldwide, especially in developing countries.

Effective as it is, only a limited number of doctors were using this method for clubfoot treatment at that time.

"In 1999, only about 10 to 15 doctors worldwide, most of whom were in Iowa, used the Ponseti method," Martin says.

After Joshua was treated, the couple spread the news on the Internet, and they have received calls from parents around the world with clubfoot-affected children.

For the past 12 years, the couple has been traveling different places in the US with their son. They joined various meeting and lectures, showing to other parents the effect of the Ponseti treatment, and helping doctors understand that the method is applicable and provide training.

They also gathered parents on the Internet, telling them to join these meetings.

Joshua, now a seventh grade student, is pictured on one of the brochures.

The boy is a good tennis player and is hoping to play for the high school tennis team. He is also a fan of Chinese ping-pong players.

"Whenever we invite someone to the house, he would just tear them apart and play ping-pong with them," says his mother.

"It is comforting that little Joshua grows up like his older brothers, healthy and sporty. Now he's a normal boy."