In some situations, doctors are forced to make unorthodox decisions to save someone's life. That's what happened to the young British Ibrahim Abdulrauf, 22 years old, diagnosed with cancer bone: he had his foot sutured backwards.
This story begins in 2015, when Ibrahim was 14 years old. During a football match with his brother, the young man suffered a blow so big that he knocked him to the ground. He hoped to recover the next day, but this did not happen.
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“I felt like I was getting shocks in my leg and I couldn't put any weight on it,” he recalled to the New York Post. He also said that his mother, at first, did not believe he was in pain. "She thought I was making excuses for not going to school."
At the hospital, he was diagnosed with Osteomyelitis. Abdulrauf was even admitted to the health institution to treat the health problem, but it did not improve, even with antibiotics and other treatments for the illness of the first diagnosis.
“It wasn't getting any better. My pain was getting worse and I had a big lump in my leg. They thought it could be a blister or a cyst,” he said.
On his return, Ibrahim was referred to the Royal Orthopedic Hospital in Birmingham, a city in England. Just then he was diagnosed with bone cancer. But the amputation of the foot – and its suture in reverse – would only come after a while.
Before that, the boy underwent a treatment of chemotherapy for six months. As the expected effectiveness was not achieved, the doctors decided to amputate part of the leg. Without this, the cancer could spread to other organs in the body.
The choice of suturing the foot in reverse was thought to make it easier for Ibrahim to use the prosthesis and use knee movement. “That way I can use my own leg and my own nerves,” explained the young man.
Ibrahim said he had no idea he would have his foot sewn backwards into his leg.
“I thought it was going to be something Frankenstein-like,” he recalled. “After the surgery, I woke up completely naked. I didn't know if they had operated on me or not. I lifted the sheet and couldn't believe what I was seeing. I had one leg when I blacked out and woke up with my foot upside down.”
After the surgery, the young man had to undergo another five months of chemotherapy. “I thought I was going to die,” he reported. But in the end, it all worked out – luckily.
With rehabilitation, Ibrahim is now able to play sports, dance and lead an independent life.
Graduated in Social Communication at the Federal University of Goiás. Passionate about digital media, pop culture, technology, politics and psychoanalysis.
