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Ed Yeates ReportingA Utah teenager is going through her 25th surgery this afternoon, what could be the final step to stretch her leg back to normal again.
Lindsay Brown had her first surgery when she was six-years old, now she's fifteen, almost sixteen. What she and her family have always envisioned would happen over this past decade is now getting very close.
Lindsay Brown tip toes on one leg because that's how close she is now to walking normally. Let's go back to just after she was born with one leg shorter than the other. It was not only shorter, but the hip on that one side was also underdeveloped.
Her parents, Mark and Judy Brown decided not to amputate, but instead, to allow Dr. Peter Stevens at Primary Children's to slowly start stretching the leg, changing Lindsay's life forever.
She's been somewhat a pioneer, passing through several windows where technology for stretching bones has changed dramatically. Sports, painting, music, you name it, she's done it. In fact, instead of taking up skiing or snowboarding on modified equipment, she wanted to stand just like everybody else, even with a shorter leg.
Lindsay Brown: "I’m sort of a stubborn person and I hate people telling me I couldn't do something, I couldn't do things because of my leg."
Her stubbornness paid off. In fact, reaching the standing position actually helped strengthen and rebuild the underdeveloped hip.
Peter Stevens, M.D., Primary Children's Medical Center: "Without that fortitude I wouldn't have had the enthusiasm to continue to offer these high tech solutions."
Now, after all these years, is what could be the final piece of technology - a rod inserted in the middle of her bone that will ratchet and lock at intervals as the bone grows the final three inches.
Peter Stevens, M.D., Primary Children's Medical Center: "She's been through a lot, but I would hope that when this is finished, she'll look back with no regrets."
No regrets, says Lindsay, and her father too, who made a commitment to his daughter when this all began.
Mark Brown, Lindsay's Dad: "I was going to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day, on two God-given legs."
In a few months, after today's surgery, the bone will have filled in the three inch gap and the rod will be removed from Lindsay's leg.
