Superdoctors. Part 3, One small step.

The last in a 3-part series in which Robert Winston meets doctors working at the cutting edge of medicine in new and innovative ways. This part looks at orthopaedic surgery. In the UK Jody and Stuart Diton approach the birth of a child with clubfoot; they look at all current options open to them to correct the condition after birth. On the other side of the globe in Malawi, Steve Mannien is a surgeon with such limited resources he has to use his powers of innovation constantly. We see him dressing an extremely bad bed sore with a sugar and glycerine preparation of his own design. He too is faced with having to correct clubfoot but in a country where belief in the power of witch doctors means he often doesn't get to see people born with club foot until they have reached adulthood. We see him operate on Martin, a 24-year-old man with severely deformed feet; the surgery is shown in detail. Steve also pioneered the use of the Ponseti Technique - a corrective, painfree, plaster cast method to correct club foot; his success with the technique has inspired parents in the UK to demand this treatment. The Diton family decide to use the Ponseti Technique and the results are shown 2 months later. Winston concludes that perhaps some of the simplest (and cheapest) medical interventions have the widest application.