Happy Feet

As a child and teenager, Julia was constantly tripping and falling. "Everybody thought I was a real klutz," she remembers. "I broke my right leg twice and my arm twice."

But at 16 she was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, a neurological disorder that affects peripheral nerves in about one in 2,500 people in the U.S.

"My feet were so deformed that I couldn't get into any shoes", she says. Doctors told her she would be in a wheelchair and that there was nothing they could really do for her. After searching in vain for a solution, Julia finally went to White Plains Hospital orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jonathan Holder, who was convinced that surgery was the answer. Says Julia, "It was amazing that he was willing to operate when everyone else said no."

One Foot at a Time

First addressing her right foot, then her left a couple of years later, he and his team cut the mid-foot bones to flatten out her arch and swing the heel upward, while also inserting screws and pins into her toes to straighten her hammertoes. The surgeon also moved a tendon from each big toe to the center of each foot to restore balance and lengthen her Achilles tendons. The surgeries were an overwhelming success.

"I’ll never be a runner," Julia laughs, "but I’m able to go on walks with my kids. I wear normal shoes, lead a very normal life."