At 1 o’clock in the morning, doctors and nurses scrambled around the hospital room getting everything ready. Bradley was arriving early.

“When Bradley was born,” his father, Ryan, says, “they took him over to the table to clean him up and then pulled me over and said, ‘Hey dad, you know about his leg, right?’ And I was like, ‘What?’ I had no idea what they were talking about.”

Ryan remembers looking down at Bradley’s right leg and seeing that he seemed to have no thigh and that his knee sat near his hip. When everyone finally left the room, he told his wife, Tracey.

“It was one of the darkest points of my life,” Tracey says. “We didn’t know ahead of time. We didn’t know what this meant. We didn’t know what his future would hold, and we didn’t know if anything else was wrong.”

The hospitalist had never seen anything like it. She and the family’s pediatrician referred the family to Scottish Rite for Children.

Pediatric orthopedic surgeon Lane Wimberly, M.D., diagnosed Bradley, at 3 weeks old, with proximal femoral focal deficiency (PFFD). PFFD is a rare congenital limb difference of the femur, or thigh bone. The affected thigh bone is shorter than the other leg and may be crooked. The severity of the leg length difference and deformity varies across a spectrum for each child and can affect the stability of the hip and knee. The cause of PFFD is unknown, and it is often missed during prenatal sonography due to its rarity and the tendency to measure just one femur length.

Dr. Wimberly let me cry through the entire appointment,” Tracey says. “He was very reassuring, and though he didn’t end up being our doctor, he played a critical role in our story because up until then, we just didn’t know what was wrong.”

After Bradley was diagnosed, Dr. Wimberly — who specializes in neurological disorders associated with pediatric orthopedic conditions — referred the family to two different multidisciplinary teams that presented various treatment options to help the family make the best decision possible. They saw Director of the Center for Excellence in Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction David A. Podeszwa, M.D., as well as pediatric orthopedic surgeon Corey S. Gill, M.D., M.A., in the Limb Difference Clinic. The couple learned that Bradley’s right thigh bone is significantly shorter than his left. Essentially, his right foot only came to the length of his left knee. They also discovered that Bradley has no ball-and-socket joint in his hip.

Depending on the severity of PFFD, families may choose between various treatment plans that are customized for each child. If the femoral deficiency is mild, a child’s leg may be lengthened through surgical procedures. If the femur is too short for lengthening, the child may wear a prosthesis. One prosthetic option allows the child to slide their foot into a prosthesis. Another option requires an amputation of the foot so that the child may fit into a prosthesis better and have more mobility.

The family met with Dr. Podeszwa and his team to learn about the care involved in limb lengthening, as well as Dr. Gill and his team to learn about the care involved in a prosthesis, with or without amputation. They also met with the Prosthetics team, Psychology, Physical Therapy, Nursing and, through the Peer Support Program, other families whose children have similar conditions.

“One of my biggest fears was making the wrong choice,” Tracey says. Ryan agrees. “It’s not like picking out a paint color,” he says. “We were making a life-changing, life-altering decision for Bradley on his behalf.”

“Bradley has a pretty severe femoral deficiency,” Dr. Gill says. “Our goal is for him to be as functional as possible with the least number of surgeries. To lengthen his leg, he was going to require many surgeries over the course of childhood with a still unpredictable result that would likely not be as functional as an amputation.”

After considering the options, Bradley’s family realized that limb lengthening and even a prosthesis without an amputation were not the best treatment plans for Bradley. “Once we made the decision to do the amputation, we never doubted it for one second,” Ryan says.

Though PFFD is very rare and not completely understood, families from across the country seek expertise at Scottish Rite for Children for this condition. “We have a long history of treating kids with congenital differences of all kinds,” Dr. Gill says. “We see more kids with limb differences and amputations or needing prostheses than probably anywhere else in the country.”

Last August, just after Bradley’s first birthday, Dr. Gill performed the amputation. A month later, prosthetist Eddie Krische, M.S., C.P.O., L.P.O., casted Bradley to create a customized prosthetic leg. In October, Bradley received his prosthetic leg, complete with an animal design featuring lions, giraffes, monkeys and more.

“I wanted a happy design,” Tracey says. “I wanted something that had happy faces that I could point to and also use as a teaching tool.”

Today, Bradley is passionate about airplanes. His parents take him to Founders’ Plaza at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport to watch them take off and land. He also has toy planes that he takes wherever he goes. He even insists on sleeping with them!

In March, at a follow-up appointment with Dr. Gill, Bradley brought a blue plane, a white plane and a red helicopter. While playing with them in the waiting room, he stood on his prosthetic leg without holding onto anything for more than 30 seconds — a record. He also walked in his prosthesis while holding onto tables and chairs.

“He’s taken a few independent steps,” Tracey says. “He’s not walking independently yet, but I know he’s capable. I just don’t know if he knows that he’s capable yet.”

Even so, Tracey and Ryan describe Bradley with one word: tenacious. “When he learned to sit up, crawl, roll over, even when he figured out how to walk on his stump after his amputation, going up and down the stairs, we didn’t teach him any of that,” Ryan says. “He did it all on his own.”

After seeing Bradley’s progress, Dr. Gill says, “He’s smiling, he’s happy, he’s playing, he’s wearing his prosthesis, and he’s getting around doing normal kid stuff, which is the goal and just what we would expect.”

As Bradley grows, Dr. Gill will follow his progress. Regarding Bradley’s future treatment plan, Ryan shares that Dr. Podeszwa may perform a “super hip surgery” when Bradley is between the ages of 3 and 5, depending on his rate of growth and bone development. The goal of surgery will be multifaceted, including strengthening his hip and reconstructing his leg so that his knees line up with no leg length disparity.

“From the beginning, everyone has welcomed our family,” Tracey says. “We feel like we’re part of the team. They think of us as people, not just patients.”

Ryan adds, “They never once made us feel like our feelings were insignificant or that our fears or worries were questionable, and they never rushed us.”

The couple shares that the experience has strengthened their family. “Just when you thought something was hard or that you couldn’t take anymore, you really are stronger than you think,” Ryan says. “We attribute that strength to our faith in God.”

“We didn’t choose this path,” Tracey says. “It was given to us, and Scottish Rite was placed in our lives. We couldn’t be more thankful because without them, Bradley doesn’t walk. With them, he walks, and he can run, play sports and have as much of a normal childhood as anybody else. ‘Thank you’ just isn’t enough. Scottish Rite has given Bradley everything.”