Rotationplasty Might Allow Girl Run Over by Tractor to Walk Again

A Missouri girl who lost a chunk of her leg when she was run over by a John Deere lawn tractor might someday be able to walk again after undergoing a rare surgery to prepare her for a prosthetic lower leg.

Isabella Smith, 6, who goes by the name Izzy, knew better than to go near the mower her grandfather was using on his Richmond property. But on May 1 she decided to look for flowers and somehow got beyond a creek where John Williams, a farmer, was mowing and he backed over her leg.

Williams later told his wife that he was able to keep it together emotionally after seeing Izzy’s mangled leg because the girl was so strong, The Kansas City Star reported. She might have whimpered a little, he said, but she didn’t cry.

Izzy has spent a little more than two weeks in the pediatric intensive care unit at University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas. She has had seven surgeries since arriving by helicopter ambulance with massive injuries to the bone and muscle of her left leg.

One of those surgeries was a rare procedure called rotationplasty, an eight-hour endeavor in which doctors removed sections of the thigh and shin, rotated her foot and attached the shin to her thigh so her heel is where her kneecap used to be. That will give her the best fit for a prosthetic leg, with her ankle serving as her knee joint.

“I was supposed to be strong for her, but it was the other way around,” said Stephanie Williams, Izzy’s mother. “I’ve gone through every emotion, and the one thing I’ve learned is that crying doesn’t help. I’m trying to be like her.”

Izzy will be fitted for a prosthetic lower leg when healing progresses, probably in about eight weeks.