Martin’s Perthes’ disease was easy for me to notice because as a child I suffered from Perthes’, so when my son Martin was complaining about pain in his right leg I guessed it might be Perthes. At first the pains in Martin’s leg were only hurting once in a while but gradually it was happening more often. We took him to our local doctor who got an appointment at the Children’s Hospital for an x-ray. The results of the x-ray showed no sign of Perthes’ so the doctor told us to keep an eye on him.

The weeks went on and Martin’s leg started hurting more often, so we got another appointment. This time the x-rays showed that he had got Perthes and would need operating on.

Martin had to go for an x-ray to have a better look. He had to be under anaesthetic that went OK. The operation went ahead. It took longer than we thought but it was a success. He was in a lot of pain at first but it eased away. I would say it took six weeks to recover with physiotherapy. Then he was getting around like normal; he started climbing and jumping about like normal and he is happier now.

We knew that a year later Martin would need another operation to take out the screw in his leg. We weren’t as worried as we knew what to expect. The operation took only one hour. Martin was in pain but the nurse wasn’t able to give him any painkillers because of the morphine he was given. Martin had to stay in overnight because they wanted him up and about before they sent him home.

Martin will need check ups every year to make sure everything is going well. If I could turn back time we would have done everything the same.

We thank all the Team of people at the Children’s Hospital for their high standard of care.

Yours thankfully.

Martin and his family