The corners of 6-year-old Darshani Sami’s mouth curl up into her cheeks when she talks about the princess Barbie doll she received for Christmas this year.
But a more practical present also gives her cause to grin: her prosthetic leg.
"We’re telling her story because it’s a Christmas story about a special gift we were able to give her," Dr. Arabella Leet, Darshani’s surgeon and chief of staff at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Honolulu, said at a news conference Monday at the hospital. "When you watch her walk, it’s really just a remarkable present for us all."
Darshani, a native of Fiji, was born with her right leg substantially shorter than her left. It was also improperly angled and had only three toes. She was able to walk on her own but suffered a severe limp that was taking a toll physically and emotionally.
"It takes a lot of energy because your trunk (torso) has the most weight, so as you raise and lower your center of gravity, it’s really energy-costly," Leet said.
Darshani’s mother, Ranjala Devi, said her daughter has always been the cheerful, laughing girl who was running around Monday on the front lawn of the hospital, but her peers made fun of her when she started preschool last year.
"Before surgery, when she goes to school, the children they just (were) teasing about her leg," Devi said. "That time she feels very sorry for herself, but now she’s happy to show everyone how she’s walking."
Devi said she had to carry her daughter the entire 30-minute walk to school and back, each day.
"I’m so happy when I see my daughter," she said. "Before, if we have to go anywhere, we have to carry her all the time, but now she can do (it) herself."
Leet said Darshani and her mother arrived at the hospital in late August, and the surgery was performed in early October. Her pending release is set for late January — just in time, Darshani hopes, for her seventh birthday on Jan. 22.
"Birthday, Fiji," she said, working on her English. Devi said her daughter goes to preschool at the hospital two days a week.
Leet said that doctors from the pediatric orthopedic hospital, which serves children throughout Hawaii and the Pacific regardless of a family’s financial situation, first examined Darshani during a yearly outreach trip to Fiji when she was only a year old. Bringing her to Honolulu for the time-consuming surgery and recovery process, however, took years.
"One of the obstacles is that children need to have a mother to come or a parent or an accompanying person," Leet said, "and she has … (three) other siblings at home, so there was never a parent available to come."
Darshani is the second oldest of Devi’s four children, and the only one to have been born with a physical difference. Leet said doctors kept an eye on her condition each year until the trip was finally booked — and they will continue to see her until she turns 21.
"This is a commitment we make to these children, to follow them," she said. "You know, part of childhood (is that) you’re going to keep growing."
The child’s four-hour surgery proved challenging for Leet and her orthopedic team because they worked hard to preserve as much of the leg’s length as possible.
"We usually are used to doing these surgeries in much younger children," Leet said.
Surgeons also straightened Darshani’s shinbone and made sure to leave her growth plate intact so her short leg can still bear her body weight if she needs it to, and it will always grow in proportion to the other leg.
"It was remarkable to see what she could do the minute she got her leg," Leet said. "She is trying harder (to recover) than anybody I have ever met."
