Pethias is a 16-year-old boy who, one day while he was walking to school, tripped and fell into a ditch. With a broken femur bone, he couldn’t even stand up to walk home. Luckily, a friend passed by and brought him back to his family. Pethias was taken to a hospital for surgery, but a month after he was discharged his leg became infected and swollen. Since then, Pethias had been dealing with chronic osteomyelitis, a bone infection that weakens and slowly eats bone away.
Fortunately, Pethias and his mother were referred to the CURE Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia. Pethias was admitted for a sequestrectomy, a procedure that removes the fragment of infected bone from the healthy bone. Doctors at CURE say: “While he waits for his treatment we hope he feels encouraged and supported, not just by his family but the hospital staff as well.”