Despite an uncomfortable pregnancy, Lynn Rueckert had no indications anything was amiss.
But when her baby appeared, she and her doctors immediately knew something was wrong. Kate Rueckert had severe scoliosis: Her spine was rotated 30 degrees to the right. Her thumbs were stubbornly folded across her palms. And her left middle finger pointed down toward her wrist.
Kate’s symptoms were caused by arthrogryposis, a term used to describe muscle and nerve disorders that cause restricted joint mobility at birth. And while Kate eventually was able to move her fingers – “I’d straighten them out during diaper changes,” Rueckert said – the girl’s spine didn’t improve.
That was until this month, when Kate Rueckert became the first patient in Wisconsin to receive a titanium rib called the VEPTR, short for Vertical Expandable Prosthetic Titanium Rib, a device that promises to straighten her spine, allowing the 2-year-old to eat, breathe and move with ease.
“This is the most exciting thing in scoliosis surgery,” said Kenneth Noonan, an associate professor of pediatrics and orthopedic surgery at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.