Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Meet Joseph

This is Joseph Uwimana. He is one of my brightest 11th grade biology students and is always first in his class when he is well enough to study. Those of you who are friends with me on facebook already know that Joseph is suffering from osteomyelitis, a severe bone infection.

Joseph's left femur has been nearly eaten away by a chronic infection that has gone untreated for far too long. His femur appears hollow on X-ray images. Standard treatment for this type of infection is surgical removal of the dead bone tissue. However, there is not enough healthy tissue remaining to allow for surgery. If the infection is not successfully treated, Joseph may lose his leg, or worse. Thanks to a few anonymous donors, I was able to buy some hardcore antibiotics to begin treating the infection. However, it's going to be a long and expensive road to recovery.

Joseph is now on a regimen of heavy antibiotics. We are hoping that once the infection is ameliorated, he will begin to regrow enough bone tissue to permit surgery to remove the rest of the infected tissue. We are optimistic of a full recovery!

No comments:

Post a Comment