Little Šimun returns home to Croatia after successful op in the US

Little Šimun (Private album)

1 April 2020 – Young Šimun Stojanović, who was born with a severe and rare diagnosis of spina bifida myelomeningocele and missing more than 25 bones in his legs, has returned home to Croatia after a successful operation in Florida. 

Šimun, who turned 3 in November, flew out to the United States with his parents on 30 August 2019. Doctors said at the time that Šimun’s case was unique in the world and they had yet to meet a child with as many deformities or had seen anything like it in medical manuals.

Šimun’s parents, Martina and Tomislav Stojanović. contacted one of the most renowned doctors in the world, Dr. Dror Paley, who specialises in limb lengthening and deformity correction procedures.

In September 2019, Šimun underwent a 9-hour operation in Florida and in January, a special prosthesis was made for him, which flexes at the knee and was coated with carbon fibers. 

On Tuesday, Šimun arrived back home after more than six months in the US. 

“Šimun greets you all, we are on our way home! Finally our feet on Croatian soil! Now we have 2 weeks of strict isolation because we value health, we know what 2 years of isolation is, lost social contacts and hundreds of days spent in the hospital. We do not want that for anybody, never … We love you all and thank you very much for being strong these two weeks while we are in isolation,” his parents said on Facebook.