H
adi Salehi, Ph.D., the motion lab’s engineer, then led Gina through a series of movements—squats, jumps, and balance—and collected all the data.
This was one of the more interesting parts of Phoenix Children’s Hospital and we came away convinced that it is the future of all orthopedics.
Babies
This is Daniel Salcedo Zarota. He is two months old and has club feet.
“Club Foot” is a term used for several congenital foot conditions. No one knows its cause, but the cure is a simple, tendon lengthening surgery. By lengthening the tendon, doctors return the foot to a normal position. Without surgery, children grow up an impaired ability to walk, run and play.
Little Daniel, sleeping so gently on the table, will not remember today. The next 30 minutes, however, will give him a lifetime of running, jumping and playing—and those memories.
His surgeon is Dr. Mohan Belthur and the Fellow assisting him today is Dr. Mohammed Waseemuddin.
Dr. Belthur, with more than three decades of experience—both as a surgeon and instructor (in his “spare time” he is an assistant professor at the University of Arizona)—is one of the leading pediatric orthopedic surgeons in the United States.
Belthur, has been staff pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Phoenix Children’s for five years. He came to Phoenix from top hospitals in the United Kingdom and U.S., including Alfred I Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
He and his team perform about 60 club feet procedures every year.
We asked Dr. Belthur why he chose pediatric orthopedics. “I love working with children,” he said. “We in pediatric orthopedics have the opportunity to change a person’s whole life for the better. What we do has to be the right fit from age zero to age eighteen.”
“And all the time our work is with families. I empathize with the families I meet. Many times parents feel as if what is affecting their child could somehow be their fault—which it is not. I understand that. I try to tell them the natural history of the issue with their child and then the treatment.”
