When we’re in a severe amount of pain, we can sometimes find ourselves desperately clawing for a way to make it stop.
And considering that even minutes of agony can make us feel this way, it’s staggering to consider what it’s like to live with a debilitating ailment for years. However, that’s exactly what many people in this world are forced to deal with.
So when a chance for a better life comes along, it’s no surprise that they would clamor for it no matter the cost.
After all, even when the risks involve putting life itself on the line, it’s hard not to feel like you have more to gain than to lose in that position.
Fortunately, it seems that the procedure couldn’t have turned out better for one man in China.
In his youth, 46-year-old Li Hua of Hunan, China had no issues walking upright.
As The Daily Mail reported , however, this would change when he turned 18 in 1991.
As we can see, this was the beginning of a long, painful road that would eventually see him “folded” in half.
This was due to a particularly severe form of a spine condition called Ankylosing Spondylitis.
As The Daily Mail reported , this likely occurs due to a genetic mutation that causes bone-wearing inflammation in the spine, which then prompts the body to produce extra calcium.
As this calcium forms, the bones can grow in unusual places and eventually fuse to alter the structure of the body.
Ankylosing spondylitis has also been known to affect other areas of the body, including the shoulders, hips, ribs, heels, and small joints of the hands and feet. There is no known cure.
For Hua, this meant he was forced to live with his face pressed against his thighs for at least two decades.
As his condition worsened over the last five years, it would also leave him struggling to eat or drink.
Because he could neither stand up straight nor lie flat, Hua ended up depending entirely on the care of his mother.
To make matters worse, Hua’s treatment options seemed dire for decades after he was diagnosed.
His family didn’t have the money for the operations he would need, and even once he did seek treatment, surgeons in Hunan refused to operate on him due to the high risk involved.
However, he finally found a reason to hope when Professor Tao Huiren of Shenzhen University General Hospital was willing to take his case.
But even for someone of Huiren’s experience, the severity of Hua’s condition made for uncharted territory.
And so, Huiren and his team were forced to break the bones surrounding Hua’s spine one section at a time and then straighten the entire spine from there.
As Huiren said, “The risks involved were 20 to 30 times that of a regular spinal surgery patient, and the chances of him becoming a paraplegic were also very high.”
He also noted that the procedure could kill Hua if they didn’t alleviate pressure on his heart and lungs.
After Huiren’s first consultation with Hua in June, the surgeries required would take place over the course of four phases.
It’s unclear how long each phase took, but hospital representatives described this procedure as the medical equivalent of climbing Mount Everest.
Yet, in China’s most extreme case of spinal correction to date, the procedure was shown to be a success and Hua was pictured lying flat in a hospital bed.
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Not only that, but Hua is now able to stand straight and move with the help of a walker.
According to Huiren, Hua’s condition is expected to improve even further after two to three months of physical therapy and he’ll be able to walk unaided.
“Of course, he won’t be able to do anything too extreme like boxing or playing tennis, but all regular bodily movements will not be a problem,” Huiren said.
And as Hua said, he’s grateful. “There would’ve been no cure for me without Dr Tao. He’s my saviour, and my gratitude to him is second only to my mother.”
h/t: The Daily Mail
