Boy, 10, has leg reattached BACK TO FRONT after op to remove tumour from knee

Cancer only discovered when he broke his leg

Rare operation called Van Ness Rotation-Plasty

He's now back playing baseball



Ordeal: Dugan Smith now has two feet pointing in opposite ways, but it hasn't stopped him chasing his dream of playing in the Major League thanks to the leg-saving operation

A baseball-mad schoolboy whose leg was ravaged by cancer can return to the diamond - after it was reattached backwards.

Dugan Smith, 13, now has two feet pointing in opposite ways, but it hasn't stopped him chasing his dream of playing in the Major League thanks to the leg-saving operation.



He only discovered he had the disease when he broke his leg at the age of ten.

X-rays revealed a tumour the size of a cricket ball growing from his thigh bone and doctors told him they had to operate fast.



'I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to run again. I didn't know if it was going to work so there was a hundred things running through my mind and I just try to stay positive,' he told Fox 8 News.

Although a number of procedures were available, such as a full prosthetic or an artificial bone, there was only one that meant he could keep his leg.

So Dugan, from Fostoria, Ohio, travelled to Ohio State's James Cancer Hospital where surgeons performed a rare operation called Van Ness Rotation-Plasty.

Doctors cut out the middle part of his leg, rotated the bottom half 180 degrees, moved it up and reattached the blood vessels.

Now Dugan is again able to play his beloved baseball... and he's as good as ever.

Dreams: The ordeal hasn't stopped Dugan chasing his dream of playing in the Major League thanks to the leg-saving operation

Leg-saver: He discovered he had the killer disease when he broke his leg aged ten and X-rays revealed a tumour the size of a cricket ball growing from his thigh bone

Toes: Doctors cut out the middle part of his leg, rotated the bottom half 180 degrees, moved it up and reattached the blood vessels

So good, that he has made lead pitcher for his local Fosteria youth team.

But Dugan gets no special treatment from father Dustin who coaches the team.

Dustin said: 'When parents try to come up and say let's help him out... no. I want him to be treated like every other kid playing baseball.'

Dugan now wants to take his ball-throwing skills all the way to the top and hopes he can one day play Major League baseball.



'Just because you have a prosthetic leg doesn't mean you can't do it, so I just go out on the field and do it,' he added.