Hajara S., 3

Three-year-old Hajara lives with her parents and 18 other children and their guardians in a four-room apartment with a pit latrine in the compound, a well for water and no electricity. Her father is a labourer earning about 5,000 naira a month, and her mother is a housewife. Every day is a struggle to simply feed the family. Hajara's right thigh became swollen, painful, and deformed, with a wound that kept discharging and fevers that came again and again. At the hospital, examination revealed a tender, swollen thigh with a discharging sinus, and an X-ray confirmed the painful truth: chronic osteomyelitis of the right femur, a deep bone infection that has already caused the bone to fracture. Hajara now needs surgery (sequestrectomy and skeletal stabilization) to remove the dead, infected bone and stabilize her leg so it can heal. For a family surviving on 5,000 naira a month, this surgery is impossible without help.

Hajara a 3yo female child was diagnosed with chronic osteomyelitis of the right femur complicated by a pathological fracture, requiring prolonged antibiotic therapy, surgical debridement, fracture stabilization, and close orthopedic follow-up for optimal recovery. However, the prognosis is guarded but improves with timely surgery, appropriate antibiotics, and rehabilitation. Delayed or inadequate treatment will result in persistent infection, non-union, recurrent fractures, chronic disability, and impaired limb function.