Toren Theiss is 11 years old. He’s an incredibly active young man who plays soccer, ski races and though he wouldn’t brag about it, does quite well at both. It wasn’t until a day in August two years ago when he was walking towards his mother Jill, that she realized something was wrong.

I was picking up Toren from summer school and watching him walk toward me. I noticed he kept walking over his right foot,” Jill recounts. “At first, I thought he was just messing with me and I told him to stop goofing around. He looked at me puzzled and said that was just how he walked. I asked him to walk down the hall again and noticed his right foot was turned inward. I then asked him to take off his right shoe. Sure enough, it was worn at an angle. I was really shocked I had not noticed it earlier.”

Toren’s parents are no strangers to his needing medical care. Toren had a variety of medical conditions after his birth that required numerous procedures throughout his early life. But this was many years in the past, his odd way of walking was a relatively new development.

“Toren’s geneticist has a daughter who had a similar issue that required treatment,” Jill says. “She told us that we should get an appointment at Gillette Children’s with Dr. Mark Dahl. That turned out to be excellent advice and we consider ourselves to be very fortunate to have received it when we did.”

Read their story in their own words, below.

Limb-Length Discrepancy and Deformity Correction Treatment at Gillette

Gillette Children’s is a regional, national and international leader in treating children who have complex conditions, rare disorders and traumatic injuries. Mark Dahl, MD, is a world-renowned specialist in the treatment of limb-length discrepancy conditions, along with other complex orthopedic conditions.

Jill Theiss: From our first appointment, we felt very comfortable with Dr. Dahl. He took the time to answer our questions and come up with a treatment plan for Toren. He is an avid professional and we felt assured that we had the best surgeon to help our son with his medical condition. In addition to our geneticist’s daughter receiving care from Dr. Dahl, I later learned that one of my good friends and former racing teammates had received care from him as well.

Travis Theiss (Toren’s father): As Jill mentioned, Toren had a fair amount of medical care early on in his life. That was obviously difficult for us, but he didn’t remember any of it. So there’s a part of you that wonders how your child is going to respond. But like all of the things Toren’s faced in life, he took it in stride.

Jill: Dr. Dahl determined that they would monitor Toren’s progress over the coming year to fully understand his condition. In July of 2019, we brought Toren in for an appointment in the Gait and Motion Analysis facility at Gillette.

Toren Theiss: That was pretty cool. There were a lot of cameras. I think it was 72 or 74. I’m not sure, but it was a lot. After that we got to see what it looked like and they put a special filter on that made me look like I was an astronaut on the moon. That was fun!

Travis: It was pretty amazing to see all of the technology used in the lab. We learned a great deal from those appointments and it became clear that Toren would need some kind of surgical procedure to adjust the length of his right leg. We met with Dr. Dahl in August where he laid out what the procedure would entail.