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My child needs replacement AFO's

Posted By airkh67

"My child needs replacement AFO's"

About: Sydney Children's Hospital

(as a service user),

My child needs replacement Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO's)! They've been in them all their life and has had many from Prince of Wales orthotics and they've always been a custom fit but this time they look two sizes too big and have a massive heel on them!

AFO's are custom moulded from a person's foot, so for them to be two sizes too big, I believe this can only mean these belong to someone else!

The massive heel and the heel in the shoe, tip my child forward a lot, making it very difficult to walk.

AFO's are supposed to make life easier, not the other way round! I don't know what's going on here but my child can't walk in these!

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Responses

Response from Care Opinion Australia 3 years ago
Care Opinion Australia

Submitted on 15/09/2020 at 1:15 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:16 PM

This response has been published by Care Opinion on behalf of Sydney Children's Hospital:

Dear airkh67,

Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback. We value all feedback and appreciate the opportunity to improve our service.

My name is Ruth and I manage the orthotics department for Prince of Wales and Sydney Children’s Hospitals in Randwick. I am sorry that your child is having issues with the AFOs and I would love the opportunity to talk to you, hear more about your experience at the orthotics department, and to resolve the issues you are experiencing with your child’s AFOs. Please do call me on 02 9382 8184.

Alternatively, you can contact the department to make an appointment to come back in and see an orthotist to talk through the challenges you are having with the AFOs, and in particular to check the fit and how your child is walking. The amount of “heel” under the AFO is determined by the amount of range at the ankle, so if your child has lost a bit of range at the ankle then it may be a heel is now required which was not needed previously. This is evidence-based practice, and should have been explained to you. I apologise if this was not done, and the heel came as a bit of a shock.

I’ll look forward to hearing from you soon, and thank you again for taking the time to provide some feedback.

Yours sincerely,

Ruth Baker

Head of Orthotics

Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick

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