3-Year-Old Born With Rare Congenital Deformity of Backward Legs Walks for the First Time in Viral Video

A 3-year-old girl who was born with an extremely rare condition that caused her legs to bend backward was able to walk for the first time after undergoing a life-changing surgery.

Victoria Komada, who's from Poland, has bilateral tibial hemimelia, a congenital deformity that caused her to be born with deformed legs, according to Fox News. Doctors first told Komada's family that her only option was to have both legs amputated. But they found an American surgeon in Florida who said there was another option: One of her legs could be saved.

Komada's family traveled to the Paley Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Dr. Dror Paley told them that he could fix her left leg. But in order to walk, he would have to amputate her right leg and fit it with a prosthetic.

Paley amputated her right leg above her knee and put pins into her left leg that a fixator, or bone stabilizing frame, could attach to. Screws were then twisted into her legs every day for months to move her bones into the right position. Her second surgery fused the bones in her left leg together.

"She was in a lot of pain all day and all night," Komada's mother, Marzena Drusewicz, said of her daughter's recovery. "We had all had enough. It was really horrible. Of course, I was so scared and didn't know what was going to happen. She would cry and scream so much after the operation."

Yet just two days after the second procedure, Komada was able to walk for the first time.

"Every week she got better and better and now she is not in any pain at all and can walk normally and we can all start our life again now [that] we are home," she said. "We were so happy when she took her first steps, we started crying." Komada and her parents returned home to Poland after spending nine months in Florida.

Komada's family received about $234,000 in donations from Polish communities to pay for treatment. Thankfully, with help from these communities—and of course, from an incredible team of doctors—Komada was able to get the "miracle" she deserved.