At 14-months-old, little Oscar Passoni-Torres is no stranger to doctors. That's because when he was one-week-old, he was diagnosed with two rare deformities - Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency, or PFFD, and Fibular Hemimelia.
"That basically means he has a short femur bone. He is also missing his fibula,” says Kari Passoni, Oscar's Mom.
PFFD occurs in about one out of 50,000 births and there's no known cause for it.
But Oscar isn't in any pain and he's not letting his little leg hold him back.
"The doctors here really couldn't help him and it was kind of too complex for Shriner, so we went down to Florida and they said that it is possible for them to lengthen his leg down to the ground,” says Passoni.
Oscar is looking forward to different milestones in his life. Last month he got a prosthetic leg.
"They have to come up with an individual design for each kid that has PFFD because each case is different,” says Passoni.
And just a few days ago, an anonymous donor gave more than $500 to help Oscar get a gait trainer walker.
"He hasn't been able to do too much weight bearing and he hasn't been able to trust the leg, and that will give him the support and help him learn to walk,” says Passoni.
Doctors say kids with PFFD have multiple options: They can do nothing, have surgery to lengthen the leg or use a prosthetic.
"Oscar is very fortunate. He has great parents. They're doing their homework and as a result, he's going to just fly. Regardless of what direction they go in, this little kid is going to do incredibly well," says Kevin Carroll with Hanger Prosthetics.
Doctor Kevin Carroll works with PFFD kids around the world.
He says most live a long, healthy, productive life and Oscar's mom is confident her son will do the same.
