Lucas' Story

Angelika Becker, 33, accompanied her 4-year-old son Lucas to his first operation. She placed his cuddly toy under his arm, stroked his cheek and whispered: “It will all be okay. You mustn’t be scared. When you wake up again your mum will be right beside you.”

Hamburg-based vascular surgeon Prof. Loose M.D. then performed the planned surgery. He removed a misrouted vein, measuring almost twenty centimetres in length, from the four-year-old’s left calf. The desired outcome: Lucas’ left leg would grow. It is four centimetres shorter than the right. A congenital vascular defect in the arms and legs is often the cause of excessive or limited growth. A malformed vein causes a change in the blood flow. If the blood cannot follow its normal route, but is rather re-directed or diverted, sufficient nutrients do not reach the areas where they are needed: the growth plates at the joints.

Prof. Loose, together with Bulgarian specialist Prof. Belov, has developed treatment methods to help resolve this problem. And he now represents the last glimmer of hope for little Lucas and his parents. His mother Angelika said this: “Paediatricians helplessly shrugged their shoulders. One orthopaedic surgeon said that Lucas would just have to live with it. A homeopathic practitioner unsuccessfully tried growth-promoting juices and pills. Nothing helped.”

Prof. Loose is the sheet anchor. He has already helped hundreds of children achieve normal growth, and he is optimistic for Lucas. “In three to five years, his legs will be the same length. He will then no longer have to wear orthotic inserts. And the risk that his entire musculoskeletal system will be damaged and one day cause him great pain has been eliminated.”