"I remember falling and my arm looking like a snake," Sunshine said.
Sunshines father, Keli’i , rushed her to the emergency room at Pali Momi Medical Center.
Doctors tried three times to set her bones.
"That was traumatic for us, too, because we were in the room while they were trying to set her arm. It’s primitive the way they do things," Keli’i said.
"The doctor was resetting it the second time and he was almost throwing up. And I was outside crying," Sunshine’s mother Roxanne said.
That is when emergency room doctors called orthopaedic specialist Dr. Byron Izuka.
Dr. Izuka, with more than two decades of medical experience, was changing the way he treated broken bones in children.
"It’s called ‘boney remodeling.’ That’s the name we give to this process where by patients, specifically children, will straighten out a bone that’s crooked on their own," Dr. Izuka said.
That’s right. No resetting of the bone and no surgery. The doctor put her arm in a typical fiberglass cast.
"And let the bones heal crooked with the understanding that if you select out the right patient to do this with, not only will the patient heal the bone, but that over time, their natural body processes will allow the bones to straighten out," Dr. Izuka said.
Which is what happened with Sunshine.
The technique only works if the patient is 10 years old or younger, but Dr. Izuka hopes his research — published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery — will change the way doctors treat broken bones and more importantly give parents and keiki an option.
"It was a relief that I didn’t have to go through any more hurtness," Sunshine said.
See the original article at: KHON2 Developing Stories
