This morning, Matilda and I (Cam) set out on a Bunnings trip to get a few bits and pieces to fix some stuff around the house before we head off for two weeks away in Melbourne. Things were going well – I had managed to get her dressed, put her hair into a pony tail (no small feat for someone with fingers like breakfast sausages) and convince her to come with me instead of Kath (again, not easy).
About halfway there, I heard a high pitch scream and look around to see Matilda holding “Jesthy doll” out with her plastic leg bent at a right angles at the knee… not a good look. The scream was followed by a red-faced-no-noise cry that lasted quite a while… also not a good look. The damage looked irrepairable as the knee appeared to be too narrow to be joined – so I rang Kath to begin a Jessie replacement search.
When we got home I got the bad news – there were no more Jessie toys in any of the shops… it was time to operate!
As the Orthapedic Consultant was unavailable, it was up to me, the inexperienced registrar to perform this rare proceedure. Thankfully the Consultant has documented a similar proceedure on this very blog a few weeks earlier so I decided to use a similar approach.
The damage was quite extensive – a complete through-knee amputation.
The manual-drill technique was attemped to bore into the femur, but this proved too difficult (it was hacking up my fingers) – time to attempt the higher risk option…
The drill… unable to anaesthetise a toy this small, I had to turn her head away – “Don’t look Jessie!” The drill proved satisfactory. The nail was inserted and glued into the femur & tibia leaving Jessie with a “peg-leg” – totally dysfunctional but looks ok.
The finished result – one Jessie toy ready for a trip to Melbourne. Now complete with two metal rods to show up on the security monitor as she goes through the X-ray!
The Beeck Brief 
I want to be there when you go through security! good luck with that one!!