Dugan Smith, Bone Cancer Survivor, Has Leg Reattached Backward

Like many other 13-year-old boys, Ohio boy Dugan Smith loves baseball. He even played pitcher and first base for his middle school baseball team last year. But unlike most other boys, he played with a backward-facing leg.

Smith was diagnosed with bone cancer called osteosarcoma when he 10, after going into the doctor because of a broken femur. Doctors found a tumor the size of a softball in his thigh bone that was spreading into his leg, and realized that Smith -- an athletic, active kid -- would have to have his leg amputated, MSNBC reported.

"I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to run again. I didn't know if it was going to work so there was a hundred things running through my mind and I just try to stay positive," Smith told Fox8 News.

But a procedure called "rotationplasty" -- where Smith's real calf is now his thigh and his real ankle is now his knee -- would give Smith a chance to run and play sports again. Only about a dozen of those surgical procedures are done in the U.S. each year, and allows the person to use just 30 percent more energy to walk or run than with a normal leg, compared with 75 percent more energy if the person got an amputation above the knee, ABC News reported.

The family opted to do it.

Dr. Joel Mayerson, Smith's surgeon and chief of musculoskeletal oncology at Arthur James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University, told MSNBC how the procedure works:

In Dugan's case, doctors removed the tumor by cutting above and below his knee. They then flipped around the lower portion of his leg and reattached it to the upper part. "This allows us to cut all of the cancer out, and leave the nerve that controls his foot intact, by turning it around backward," explains Mayerson.

Less than a day after the surgery, Smith was already able to move his toes on his reattached leg. Now, he can play sports and stay active, though he told MSNBC that he still has some trouble running.

Comments

[Tanrioldu]

07:28 PM on 08/14/2011

you would think he'd have cleaned up his room before the news showed up for an interview.

[Jaguar8450]

11:15 PM on 08/13/2011

Oddly enough, my FIL had one upper rear thigh surgically attached to his calf on the same leg after being injured in Italy during WW2...He spent quite a considerable amount of time recuperating like this in a VA hospital out mid- west and while writing home to his wife, he included a handdrawn diagram in one of his letters.

[sparkybrown7877]

09:48 PM on 08/13/2011

I wish the best for Dungan, with all my heart! He can play soccer and score for both teams! You go Dungan!!!

[forkuu]

09:35 PM on 08/13/2011

this is certainly an odd solution but if the young man is happy with it ok but i predict it will not be long term

[jankay777]

05:50 PM on 08/13/2011

Dugan, I am so sorry that you have had to go through such a traumatic event, however, it sounds to me that the surgeons have done a remarkable thing with your leg. I am so happy that you will be able to play sports again. There are so many new procedures out there now, we should all be so proud of how hard doctors and surgeons work to keep us well and to give our lives back to us as they have for you. I'm really happy for you Dugan. God bless you kiddo.

[shwanzsticker]

05:38 PM on 08/13/2011

Wow! Great story. I hear that there is just one complication: After getting a hit, instead of running to first base, he just runs around in circles at the batters mound! Go figure!

[Asuigeneris1]

06:00 PM on 08/13/2011

o.O

...go to the bathroom, look at yourself in the mirror, then slap yourself a few times.

Thanks in advance.

[jennielake]

07:48 PM on 08/13/2011

- ugggggg

u r ______________ !

[StraferX]

05:24 PM on 08/13/2011

I pray for the young lad and his family. While this may not seem to be an ideal solution it is much better than the alternatives. It's a marvel what modern medicine can do today.

I hope they do well and take it light heartedly, I bet no one can run in a circle as fast as he can..

[tuffcityt]

08:23 AM on 08/14/2011

Your religious ...no one runs in circles like you quacks...good thing we have good doctors so they can take the cancer that god gave him out of his leg.

[Sheila Caldwell Rushing]

05:18 PM on 08/13/2011

wow! what an insprirational story, I hate to hear of any child geting sick with any type of illness, but thankfully the Dr. were able to save this boy's life and he is able to play ball again. I would hope to have his courage if anything like this happened to me. God bless you Dugan, you are a hero in my book, you are true comeback kid. You have proved that with determination you can overcome almost anything. Hope you succed in anything you chose to do with your life.

[KEON14]

05:11 PM on 08/13/2011

News crafting to create humor? Is this the funnies?
You would serve this boy (and healthcare professionals) much better without the misleading headlines. Instead of a real discussion, rabble rabble. Happy?
When will huffi grow up?

[Tolerant Taxpayer in NY]

05:06 PM on 08/13/2011

That's a terrible decision that the family made, although I respect the fact that they have the right to make their own decisions about their son. I would have had my son's leg amputated and had a prosthetic put in, for several reasons, the main one, for fear the cancer could come back in the part of the leg remaining. It also looks pretty messed up and I would'nt wish that on a child.But again, I respect that the family has the right to do what they feel is best. I just wouldn't have made that same decision.

[Asuigeneris1]

06:01 PM on 08/13/2011

...so you would have made the decision without your child's input?

[Tolerant Taxpayer in NY]

08:04 PM on 08/13/2011

Yes, because I don't think these parents made the right decision for their child's future (possibility of cancer recurrence etc), and they were only thinking of his playing sports, which of course is nice for the time being, but they needed to think of what is best for their son for the years to come. Again, only my opinion. :)

[Dharma kate]

11:43 AM on 08/14/2011

yes, I fully imagine that the physicians never discussed the possibility/probability of reccurence and that the family had to make that decision without any medical advice on input whatsoever.

[3daywkend]

04:54 PM on 08/13/2011

Backwards? Where I come from that's called incompetent. I smell a malpractice lawsuit!

[HarmonySliced]

05:10 PM on 08/13/2011

Why not just write, "I didn't read the article"?

[3daywkend]

05:21 PM on 08/13/2011

Geez, I hope somebody got the joke.

[Stilyagi]

04:28 PM on 08/13/2011

"Well if it isn't my old friend Mr. McGregg — with a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg!"

[maxom]

04:49 PM on 08/13/2011

You'r stab at humor sucks.

[Stilyagi]

01:48 PM on 08/14/2011

"Stab" at humour! Good one!

[Stilyagi]

02:13 AM on 08/30/2011

Not as much as your stab at grammar.

[PalinEffect]

04:17 PM on 08/13/2011

Dugan leaves us with this advice, which he learned the hard way: "Never give up, because 90 percent of it is in your mind."

His backwards foot on his shotened leg fits into a prosthesis is how this works. NOT in the story.

Good for him, although I just read: adolescents are the least likely to see a doctor overall - insured and uninsured. A tumor the size of a softball and he couldn't see a doctor earlier?

[samsiewamsie]

04:57 PM on 08/13/2011

Palin....... I am a two time survivor of sarcoma cancers (the hardest to kill with either chemo or radiation) and some of them grow at an alarming rate. Mine (3B Liposarcoma) doubled in size every 8 days before it was removed in thirty days.......and I was going to a doctor every week.
For Dugan........ you truly are blessed. Take advantage of it son and I hope that you never have to face it again. You are in an exclusive family now (cancer survivors) so hold your head up and keep the same attitude that you have now. May God bless you. Sam

[lesherb]

01:14 PM on 08/14/2011

Thanks for pointing this out. I couldn't imagine how this was a good thing. Now I can see the rationality since there will be a prosthetic involved.

[jennielake]

04:07 PM on 08/13/2011

First - I am glad we have come to the point in research that this is possible.

Second - with more research we will do even better.

And MOST importantly - HUGS to the young man and his family.

This young man has been through ALLOT - are there any posts that are sending love to him?

That is what matters most here.

- let's send him compassion and love... how as a HuffPost family can we help?

Can we do something besides offer the - *&^#*(^@ - we are offering?

Can we start a FB Group... a Friends of Group... Im in... who else?

Are you willing to actually make a difference - or - just complain to a computer screen?

[kritteracres]

03:52 PM on 08/13/2011

spm READ THE ARTICLE!!!!!!! His parents opted to have the leg reattached this way so he could play sports. It has NOTHING TO DO WITH the President. Sheesh!!!! Do some of you people read the entire article or only the headlines?

[docwindprod]

06:07 PM on 08/14/2011

they don't even read. they have things read to them by right-wing pundits (or, occasionally, left-wing pundits).