Ignacio Ponseti and grateful parents

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The Des Moines Register published letters from parents whose children were patients of Dr. Ignacio Ponseti, who created a nonsurgical method of treating clubfoot in infants. Ponseti died Oct. 18 at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinic. He was 95.

‘To say that Dr. Ponseti was gentle would be an understatement,’ wrote Jennifer Diaz. ‘While other doctors had previously manipulated [her daughter’s] foot with casts to the echoes of a screaming baby, he gently massaged her foot, bringing it to position while quietly talking to her. She never so much as whimpered with him. He was incredible.’

-- Keith Thursby

Ponseti in 1943. Credit: University of Iowa.