Looking grim and shuffling unsteadily, Gabriella Ceja Zepeda maneuvered through her Santa Rosa doctor's office as if on stilts. And then she beamed, glancing down as she reawakened to the fact that both feet were now facing forward instead of back.

Born with two clubfeet that faced backward - a rare condition usually found in developing countries, such as her native Mexico - Gabriella had little hope of having them corrected. But family members in the United States and doctors here worked to secure medical care that changed her feet and may have changed her life.

Doctors on Thursday declared the 18-year-old was at last ready to go home. Surgeons succeeded in turning her right foot around in a December 2004 operation at Sutter Medical Center and shifted the position of the left one in June.

"It is such a wonderful thing to have your prayers answered," said her mother, Maria Luisa Ceja Zepeda, as she pressed her palms and fingertips together.

Dr. Thomas Chang, a Santa Rosa foot surgeon who performed the operations, along with Dr. Jonathan Kreger, a Ukiah podiatrist, said that within a year, her walk should be almost normal.

"The great thing is that the family wasn't sure it wanted to take the chance that Gabriella might lose her feet because of complications," Chang said. "Now, they can go home with the hope that this had made a difference for their daughter."

Since their daughter's first operation, the family has stayed with relatives in Santa Rosa or Orland, near Chico, never too far from regular visits to doctors monitoring her progress.

"I think I must have watched a lot of telenovelas," said Gabriella, referring to the Mexican-style soap operas on Spanish-language networks. "They are the same ones we see at home, so I won't miss anything."

The shy teenager said she intended to get back to playing soccer and basketball with friends as soon as she could. Although born with the deformity of having toes and ankles facing backward, she said she learned to walk and play sports without much trouble.

Her condition, called bilateral clubfoot, isn't so uncommon in some countries, but getting it fixed in her small village of La Lagunita in Michoacan was out of the question.

In the United States, doctors would treat it during infancy by putting the clubfoot in a cast.

Sutter Medical Center paid for much of the cost of her operations, estimated at about $70,000, while various specialists donated their time. Her case had been brought to the attention of Kreger through one of Gabriella's relatives, whom the doctor was treating.

During surgery at Sutter, Chang and Kreger cut Gabriella's foot open at the ankle and maneuvered soft tissue, blood vessels, ankle bone and arch into their proper direction.

"We might see two of these during our medical missions to other countries," said Chang, who is leaving Saturday for one such mission to Venezuela. "It is not uncommon, but left untreated, what usually happens is these patients are eventually unable to walk and need wheelchairs."

"In Gabriella's case, what she's going to need is a constant supply of good orthopedic shoes."

YEARLONG ORDEAL

December 2004: Gabriella Ceja Zepeda has surgery to correct her backward right foot.

June 2005: Surgery is performed on her left foot, which
also faced the wrong way.

January 2006: Doctors declare her ready to return home to Mexico.

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Podiatric Surgeons Put Teen On New Path

Year of treatment for rare foot condition

(Source : THE PRESS DEMOCRAT 2/20/2006)