Mr Combe Born in 1907 in the Scotish highlands and at about 2 years of age suffered from menigitis he was rushed to hospital and the doctors found that it had affected the bones in his legs and arms.
They stabilised him and monitored him during his 9 month hospital stay and found that his brain was o.k but the virus had affected his elbow and knee joints and left him deaf in one ear his eyesight was also affected so surgery was required to remove the infected joints.
Both knee joints were removed and as there was no prosthesis in those days they cut back the bones and spliced them together (see diagram below)
Both legs became rigid the only movment was from the hips and ankles,
as the left knee was in worse condition the bone had to be trimmed back further to allow for good fusion of the bone.
As mr Combe got older and grew the left leg stopped growing resulting in a 5 inch shortening.
When he was 12 years old and helping his father a cart horse trod on his left foot and shattering all the bones of his foot,this left his foot deformed and twisted so the cork raise had to moulded to the shape of his foot.
Because of surgery  Mr Combe body remained normal but his arms and legs were stunted and he only stood 56 inches tall.

 
 

BACK

NEXT