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Richmond kid on the way up, quite literally

He’s lost about 10 per cent of his body weight, but nobody could be happier than Richmond kid Riley McCluskey.
Riley
Riley McCluskey, with the leg frame removed after seven months of it helping to lengthen his limb. Photo submitted

He’s lost about 10 per cent of his body weight, but nobody could be happier than Richmond kid Riley McCluskey.

The 12-year-old Lord Byng elementary student has just had removed the 10-pound circular, metal frame that has been drilled into his right leg for the last seven months.

As reported in the Richmond News in March, the equipment was vital in lengthen the limb of Riley, who has fibular hemimelia, which he’s had since birth.

The condition causes his right leg to grow at a slower rate than his left, mainly from the knee down.

But that hasn’t stopped Riley from playing for his school basketball team on a regular basis and hockey for the Richmond Jets when he doesn’t have the OrthoPediatrics frame called “Orthex” attached.

“It was a big day for Riley today,” said his dad, Shawn, about the frame coming off.

“Everything went well and Riley is doing great. He has to take it easy for the next six weeks. No basketball, skateboarding,   scooters, sports and such, until the bones are healed from where the pins were screwed in.”

The frame is used by podiatric and orthopaedic surgeons to treat complex fractures and bone deformities.

At age seven, Riley was the first child to be lengthened with the frame at BC Children's Hospital by Dr. Anthony Cooper.

The first frame, which he wore for around a year, lengthened his leg by seven centimetres and the second, which he had fitted last September, has already added six centimetres.

His parents, Nancy and Shawn, had to turn a screw on the frame a quarter of a millimetre, three times a day to encourage the bone in his leg to grow.