From scraped knee to surgery

At 13, Nelson was an active kid. As most South American boys do, he enjoyed soccer, but also basketball. One afternoon, he fell during a jump-ball and scraped the side of his leg. What started as a typical game took a turn for the worse. An aggressive bacteria infected his surface wound and attacked his body.  He was in a coma for eight days and spent two weeks in the intensive care unit. Unfortunately the bacteria lodged itself into his left hip, keeping him in the hospital for an additional three months.

By 16, the head of his femur had been eaten away by the multiple bacterial infections reoccurring in his hip joint. He consulted with CAMTA doctors in hopes to have his hip rebuilt, and to walk like a regular young adult. Because the risk of residual infection hidden inside the bone was high, the surgeons could not foresee if they would be able to do a total hip replacement today. Their plan was to get blood work and cultures to rule out an infection, before proceeding with a definitive treatment plan. 

Nelson's surgery went as well as it could have… so well that he even snored through all of it. Once awake from the anesthesia, he was quick to share his good news with all his friends, who all live almost seven hours away in the Ecuadorian jungle. 

A first attempt

By the end of our day, Nelson had already seen physiotherapists who taught him how to get out of bed and stand up on… his brand new hip! He is staying with us until Saturday, because he needs IV antibiotics as a precaution against further infection.