Doctors from Shanghai's Shenjiang Hospital have successfully transformed a boy whose hands and feet were so deformed that he looked like a sea lion.

Eleven-year-old Hai Jun from the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region suffered from a multiple congenital contracture, which twisted his wrists and feet. The deformity had stopped him from being able to use his hands or feet normally although his twin brother was healthy and normal.

Hai Jun's mother helps the boy don the specially designed shoes while his twin brother looks on.

"There are various congenital contractures and these affect one in every 4,000 newborn babies," said Dr Cao Mingjun, director of Shenjiang Hospital's orthopedics department and Hai Jun's chief surgeon.

"Hai Jun's case was a complicated contracture. It may have been caused during fetal development or from pressure on the womb.

"All the soft tissue, blood vessels and nerves on Hai's limbs were deformed. If we did not operate on him the disease would have seriously impeded his development and his quality of life."

Cao had conducted a preliminary operation on the boy in 2002 to improve the use of his wrists and to reposition the blood vessels in his legs.

The second operation on August 7 corrected the deformities in his feet and he can now walk normally.

After rehabilitation the boy can walk as well as any normal person though he has to wear special shoes to ensure that his feet will continue to grow normally.

"I am happy that the surgery fixed my deformity and has given me a chance to walk and play like other children and my brother Hai Yang," said the boy, who is studying in a local primary school for Hui minority.

"We are confident he will develop normally though we may have to operate on his wrists later," Cao added.

(Shanghai Daily September 3, 2007)