Wayland man designs foot brace

    Wayland resident John Mitchell has made a difference in the lives of thousands of infants around the world. Mitchell owns MD Orthopaedics in Wayland, a firm that produces foot braces for children born with clubfoot. But Mitchell?s humanitarianism goes well beyond his company?s products. Mitchell has donated over $1 million to charity since his business began six years ago.

    From a young age, Mitchell was interested in making things.

    ?I was the kid who won the science fairs,? remarked Mitchell. ?I wanted to be an artist, too, because I liked to sculpt.?

    Those desires stayed with Mitchell into adulthood. In 1986, he began making anatomy molds. An Iowa City doctor named Ignacio Ponseti learned of Mitchell?s work in molding and paid him a visit in about 1995. Ponseti asked Mitchell to make him a model of a foot. Ponseti treated children with clubfoot, and he wanted a model of a foot with which he could teach the parents of his patients.

    Mitchell?s foot model shows all the bones of the foot and how they move relative to each other. Additionally, strings that represent tendons (which connect muscle to bone) are attached to the bones. When a string near the ankle is pulled, the toes, which are attached to the string, fold in toward the ankle. This is useful for illustrating the cause of clubfoot. One of the causes of clubfoot is the failure of certain foot muscles to grow properly. The shortened muscles pull on the foot bones, causing them to collapse inward. 

    The way Ponseti sought to remedy clubfoot was through a brace that stretched the foot muscles. Parents complained to Ponseti about the foot braces because their children developed blisters from the device. Mitchell went to Iowa City many times to sell foot models to other doctors, and during his visits he heard these complaints from the parents. When their child started crying from the blisters, some parents removed the brace, which caused the clubfoot to reappear.

    In 2002, Ponseti suggested that Mitchell design a better pair of shoes to go on the brace ? shoes that would fit more comfortably on an infant?s feet. Mitchell said he was surprised at the suggestion because he didn?t know much about podiatry apart from his models.    

For the full story, see the Dec. 9 edition of The Washington Evening Journal