Ted finds his feet for the first time

TED Johnson has felt for the first time this week what it's like to walk with feet. Prenatal scans failed to detect he had a rare abnormality.

Ted Johnson

TED Johnson has felt for the first time this week what it's like to walk with feet. Prenatal scans failed to detect that the Horsham boy had the rare congenital abnormality tibial hemimelia, and Ted was born without shinbones, knees and ankles.

His parents, Abbie Clark and Peter Johnson, were forced to make the decision to have Ted's legs amputated a year after his birth. Prosthetic legs gave him the best chance of an independent life.

The Herald Sun was at the Royal Children's Hospital last week when the three-year-old received his first set of legs with feet.

As soon as the new blue fibreglass legs were strapped on with Velcro, Ted was on the move. He walked tall and proud, stopping intermittently to look at himself in the mirror, relishing the bounce of his rubber foot hitting the floor.

"He's incredible. Nothing stops him," Ms Clark said. "We thought he might need a frame to get around at first, so I can't believe how well he's doing."

"We're going shoe shopping tomorrow for the first time."

Ted was fitted with his first prosthetic "stumpies", with tyre rubber soles, and progressed to a longer rainbow version last year.

RCH prosthetist Jim Lavranos, who made and adjusted each of Ted's three sets of legs, said it usually took children up to three or four years to move through the progressions of leg extensions.

"He's getting these much earlier than we'd normally do it, just because he's so confident and quick," he said.

"He'll fly through these.

"We'll look at getting him legs with knees this time next year."

Donate to the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal at goodfridayappeal.com.au or phone [phone].