(The Columbus Dispatch) – During his last season playing baseball at Fostoria High School this spring, pitcher Dugan Smith started seven games.
He lost six, but the one winner was a one-hitter. He also led the northwestern Ohio school’s Redmen in strikeouts, with 39.
To Dugan, it was a disappointing season. To most others, though, it’s a miracle he even plays the game.
When he was 10 years old, all Dugan wanted to do was play baseball. He dreamed of one day playing in the big leagues.
Instead, doctors discovered he had osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer in his right leg. Soon after, surgeons at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University amputated much of the leg to remove a softball-sized tumor.
But the surgeons had an idea to give Dugan more mobility – a rotationplasty, a procedure performed a dozen or so times a year in the United States. Here’s how it works: What used to be the shin and calf are turned around and reattached to function as the thigh, and what used to be the ankle and foot — backward now as well – work as the knee.
Most parents of children with osteosarcoma opt for a more normal-looking reconstruction, but this decision ultimately was left up to Dugan. He said yes.