Upon arriving at our up-country base in the village of Masongbo, I was very glad to meet Rugiatu Kargbo, an eight-year-old girl who has recently joined the 17 spinal-deformity children and four young men living under our care. All but one of them had received major spinal surgery in Ghana by teams from the Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine (FOCOS). When I had last seen Rugiatu about ten months before, she was obviously in pain as she tried to adjust her posture to lessen the pain in her lower spine which had been fractured due to a tuberculosis infection and was becoming deformed as the affected vertebrae continued to collapse.
Now, after recovering from surgery by FOCOS in May, she is an active girl, running, playing, and going to school with her house-mates and with neighboring children. Our hope is that after the end of this school year, Rugiatu will be able to rejoin her family in their village not too far away. We will have to see that she continues to attend school, since she had fallen way behind, but is catching up.
Tom Johnson, Jr.
Nov. 3, 2013