THE CHRISTMAS STORY
And there were in the same country
AN EDITION OF
GAZETTE COMMUNICATIONS
© 2008
VOL. 126 NO. 351
‘Gift of a
normal life’
UI’s Dr. Ponseti revered around
globe for treatment of clubfoot
I
OWA CITY — In this season of giving, a growing
number of parents from around the globe have
an Iowa City doctor to thank for one of their
most precious gifts.
For more than half a century, Dr. Ignacio Ponse-
On the Net
For video on Dr. Ponseti’s
clubfoot procedure, go to
www.gazetteonline.com
■ To read more about The
Ponseti International Association, properly treated, the con-
go to www.ponseti.info/v1/
of a normal life,” said Jennifer Trevillian, 35, of
Champaign, Ill., whose daughter, Kelly, 8, was seen
; PONSETI, PAGE 6A
Dr. Ignacio
Ponseti is
shown in
1943 review-
ing X-rays in
the clinic at
the Univer-
sity of Iowa.
From an old, flooded house — a new manger
By Steve Gravelle
The Gazette
CEDAR RAPIDS — Every
Nativity scene tells the story of
Christ’s birth, and many have
family stories behind them.
So, too, with the Nativity at
St. Ludmila’s Catholic Church
in southwest Cedar Rapids.
“Father Tom (McDermott)
wanted it done so it looked
old,” said Chet Sheetz, the
parishioner who built the dis-
play’s new “old” manger. “I
was thinking, ‘Where can I get
some old wood?’
“Then I remembered I have
a 110-year-old house.”
That would be 54 21st Ave.
SW, in the Czech Village,
where Sheetz and his wife,
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And the angel said unto them, Fear
shepherds abiding in the field, keeping not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings
watch over their flock by night. of great joy, which shall be to all people.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came For unto you is born this day in the city
upon them, and the glory of the Lord of David a Saviour, which is Christ the
shone round about them: and they were Lord.
sore afraid. Luke 2: 8-11
St. Wenceslaus Church and flood-damaged homes along Fifth Street SE in Cedar Rapids; Cliff Jette/The Gazette
THURSDAY
December 25, 2008
www.gazetteonline.com
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER IN IOWA’S TECHNOLOGY CORRIDOR 75 CENTS
IOWA ECONOMY
IOWA LIFE
Auditor: State
needs deeper
spending cuts
By Rod Boshart
The Gazette
JOHNSTON — State Au-
ditor David Vaudt warned
Wednesday that Gov. Chet
Culver and Democrats run-
ning state government aren’t
cutting spending deep or fast
By Cindy Hadish enough to deal with a growing
The Gazette budget crisis.
Vaudt also
said he does
not favor a
proposal being
considered to
ti, 94, has treated patients lease the state
with the non-surgical lottery to pri-
method he developed to
correct clubfoot, a birth
vate interests.
He said he fears
defect in which feet are the one-time David
twisted down and inward. money raised Vaudt
Left untreated or im- under such an State Auditor
arrangement
dition can leave children would be used to avoid tough
crippled. decisions to bring ongoing ex-
“I would call it the gift penses in line with ongoing
revenue.
The Republican auditor
made his comments during
a taping of Iowa Public Tele-
vision’s “Iowa Press” show,
which airs Friday evening and
again on Sunday.
Vaudt said he is concerned
financial belt-tightening mea-
sures already ordered by Cul-
ver may not keep the state’s
budget balanced through June
30. That comes while forecast-
ers are nervous that current
Stephen Mally/Freelance revenue projections may be
Dr. Jose Morcuende (from left) watches as Dr. Ignacio Ponseti shapes a new cast on 4-week- too optimistic.
Earlier this week, Culver
old Adalene Nolin as she is held by her mother, Sarah Nolin of North Pole, Alaska, at University
Hospitals in Iowa City on Dec. 17. Ponseti invented a way in the 1950s to treat clubfoot in children signed a 1.5 percent across-
the-board cut in current
University Hospitals using low-cost casts, a method that has spread around the globe.
; AUDITOR, PAGE 6A
THE FLOODS OF 2008
Shirley, raised ent look,” Lechtenberg said. “It’s a connection with the
their son, Jeff, “I think it’ll be around for a wood,” she said. “I think that’s
and daugh- while.” why he asked Chet to make
ter, Julie. The Lechtenberg said the new it.”
house took 15 manger carries added signifi- The Sheetzes have moved
feet, 3 inches cance for the parish. to a new home on the same
of water in Although the church itself street, up the hill from their
June’s flood — at 211 21st Ave. SW stayed dry, old home. Sheetz, 69, a long-
“I measured about 90 members’ homes and time woodworker, has more
Chet Sheetz it.” 15 businesses owned by parish- time to spend on his hobby af-
Woodworker Sheetz used ioners were flooded. Church ter retiring from his job as an
wood lathe members have matched flood- engineer for Caterpillar.
from beneath Julie’s second- affected families with “parish “I don’t do rough stuff
floor childhood bedroom to partners” who support their like that, usually,” he said.
create the weathered-looking recovery efforts. ”I thought it was neat that it Amanda LaRae Larkin/The Gazette
manger for the Christ child. Lechtenberg said few par- came out of the old house. It’s
Chet Sheetz of Cedar Rapids built this manger out of wood from his
The manger replaces a ce- ish members are aware of the become a symbol of the great-
ramic piece, said Sister Mary manger’s origin, but she ex- est thing in the world.” home at 54 21st Ave. SW, which had 15 feet of floodwater inside it in
Lechtenberg, pastoral associ- pects McDermott to incorpo- June. Sheetz and his wife moved up the hill, but he returned to the
ate at St. Ludmila’s. rate it into his Christmas Eve ■ Contact the writer: (319) 398-5819 home when he needed old wood for the new Nativity at St. Ludmila’s
“This just gives it a differ- homily today. or steve.gravelle@gazcomm.com Church, 211 21st Ave. SW.
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6A The Gazette, Thursday, December 25, 2008

Ponseti/Has treated more than 4,000 from around world

; FROM PAGE 1A
by Ponseti after failed treatments in
Michigan. “She does everything that
a normal 8-year-old does.”
Like others, Trevillian found Pon-
seti on the Internet.
It was the Internet, in fact, that
propelled the soft-spoken doctor to
rock-star-like status in his twilight
years.
“He’s a legend for surgeons,” said
Dr. Armando Gabrielli, 29, who came
from Rome to study under Ponseti.
“It’s not just the professional part.
He knows a lot about everything. Ponseti looks at the foot of Adalene
He’s really a beautiful person.” Nolin of North Pole, Alaska, after a cast
When University Hospitals issued was removed during a Dec. 17 appoint-
a notice last month that Ponseti’s ment in Iowa City. Ponseti has corrected
workload would lighten, word quick- clubfoot, a birth defect in which feet are
ly spread. twisted down and inward, for more than
Message boards buzzed with 4,000 children. He has been at the Uni-
praise for Ponseti and concern over
whether he could continue seeing versity of Iowa since 1941.
patients. Ponseti, however, has no
plans to quit. rising Iowa River threatened the
“I kind of museum. The museum flooded. The

“ I can’t enjoy the job,”

he said. “I like
imagine the children, and I
collection was saved.
Ponseti points to works by Fran-
cisco Goya and others among his
number of can do this very favorites.
well.” Only one he describes as “not
families Ponseti was very good.” The colorful oil paint-
all over forced to retire ing of a scene on Majorca, hung
at age 70 but inconspicuously on a staircase, was
the world Brian Ray photos/The Gazette
painted by Ponseti.
returned a year
who will later when man-
Dr. Ignacio Ponseti and his wife, Helena Percas-Ponseti, stand in front of art work in their home in Iowa City on Monday. Percas- Sunlight streams across a manu-
Ponseti, also a native of Spain, has published books, including one that is a tribute to her husband and to Iowa. script Ponseti is proofing on a small
count their datory retire-
ment rules were table in his upstairs study, a subse-
blessings lifted. Other doc- quent printing of his book’s second
this tors have since thopedic medicine. edition. “Congenital Clubfoot: Fun-
taken over the Steindler asked Ponseti to review damentals of Treatment,” was first
Christmas bulk of work at clubfoot surgery results. released in 1996.
and thank his namesake “It was thought that a deformity His wife also is an author, who
clinic, where needed surgery,” Ponseti recalled. has written about “Don Quixote”
God for Dr. Ponseti still sees The key in his method, he said, author Miguel de Cervantes among
Ponseti.
” patients.
His steps have
Teresa Audilet slowed, but his
came in realizing that club feet de-
velop normally in the embryo. Later
during pregnancy, muscles pull the
others. Her latest book, “Homage to
Iowa: The Inside Story of Ignacio V.
Ponseti,” released last year, is a trib-
8-year-old hands move deft- foot out of shape for reasons that ute to Iowa as well as her husband.
daughter treated ly, instinctively, aren’t fully known. Both from Spain, the couple
His wife remembered early skepti- met in Iowa. Percas-Ponseti was a
by Dr. Ponseti as he works. cism when the non-surgical method
Sarah Nolin, professor of Spanish language and
36, traveled was introduced. literature at Grinnell College. They
3,400 miles to bring her daughter, “In Iowa, people don’t care what married in 1960. He has two children
Adalene, to the clinic. their feet look like,” she recalled an from a previous marriage.
Her timing for the holidays — East Coast surgeon saying. “He was Percas-Ponseti shows photos that
they came from North Pole, Alaska saying bad things not only about parents have sent of their smiling,
— was coincidental. Finding Ponseti (Ponseti) but about the people of active children.
was not. Iowa. I will never forget that.”
Nolin and her husband searched One reason the technique was ‘Thank God for Dr. Ponseti’
the Internet to find the best place for Adalene Nolin lays next to a photo of her foot before treatment at University Hos- slow to catch on was because the Ponseti has treated more than
treatment. low-cost method is less lucrative 4,000 patients, who have come to
pitals in Iowa City in December. The photos show how clubfoot twists a child’s feet than surgery. But it’s the cost factor
“We decided we might as well down and inward. A method invented by Dr. Ignacio Ponseti corrects the condi- Iowa City from as far as Mauritius in
come to where it all began,” she said. that makes the method appealing in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
tion through a series of manipulations and casts, gradually returning the foot to its developing countries, where most
Ponseti soothed Adalene last His fans are everywhere.
week as he and Dr. Jose Morcuende normal position. clubfoot cases occur.
Worldwide, about 150,000 infants “I have never known such a kind
changed a cast. and caring physician,” Teresa Au-
Babies, he said, should be com- arthritic and needing further sur- Born in 1914 on the Spanish island are born with clubfoot annually.
gery. of Menorca, he worked for his father, About 250 to 300 doctors have dilet of Greensboro, N.C., wrote in
fortable as they undergo treatment: an e-mail to The Gazette. Her 8-year-
“You keep your eyes on the foot 50 He studied the anatomy of the a watchmaker. trained under Ponseti at the UI,
foot to develop his method, which in- Handling delicate, minuscule with another 1,800 trained in foreign old daughter, Claire, was treated by
percent of the time and your eyes on Ponseti after months of failed early
the face 50 percent of the time.” volves aligning the foot by manipu- watch parts refined Ponseti’s dex- countries.
lating ligaments and tendons, and terity. He graduated from medical treatment.
Morcuende, described as a young-
er version of Ponseti, came to the UI applying plaster casts to the full leg. school in Barcelona and worked as a Love of art “The gift he gave her — of being
from Spain in 1990 and co-founded Ponseti is matter-of-fact about medic during the Spanish Civil War. Only in recent years have Ponseti able to run, jump, dance and play
the Ponseti International Associa- why he developed his technique. A Loyalist, Ponseti escaped to and his wife stopped traveling. like other children — is impossible
tion. “Because I’m that way,” he said. France when Gen. Francisco Franco The two share a love of art, evi- to take for granted,” she wrote. “I
The Ponseti method has a 95 per- “If I can get by without surgery, then won the war. He moved to Mexico, denced in the paintings and sculp- can’t imagine the number of families
cent to 98 percent success rate, Mor- I do.” where he met Dr. Juan Farill, who tures that fill the walls and shelves all over the world who will count
cuende said. “That’s as good as you had studied under Dr. Arthur of their home. Part of their collection their blessings this Christmas and
get in medicine.” Iowa by way of Spain Steindler at the UI. Farill recom- was displayed — for one day — at thank God for Dr. Ponseti.”
After coming to the University Sitting in his Iowa City home with mended Ponseti to Steindler. the UI Museum of Art.
of Iowa in 1941, Ponseti found that his wife, Helena Percas-Ponseti, 87, Ponseti finished his residency at The exhibit opened June 10 and ■ Contact the writer: (319) 398-8428
clubfoot surgery can leave patients Ponseti described his early career. the UI and joined the faculty of or- was packed up the next day as the or cindy.hadish@gazcomm.com

Man killed in standoff Auditor/Vaudt: ‘Even You’re the reporter when it comes to telling us about engagements,
weddings and anniversaries. Come to The Gazette for forms to help you

was murder suspect more belt tightening’

EL MONTE, Calif. (AP) — A
call to police to investigate a
such 1980s fare as “Galactica
1980” and “Pee-Wee’s Big Ad-
prepare a beautiful write-up about these special events or call 368-8873 or
1-800-397-8212 for details.
; FROM PAGE 1A Culver and Democratic law-
makers for ignoring expert
warnings of a likely economic

Coming December 28, 2008

gaunt, seedy-looking man venture.” He was credited as year spending as part of an
with a boy was the beginning “heavy metal boy” in the 1988 overall effort to pare back downturn in approving spend-
of a deadly end to four years movie “Stand and Deliver.” nearly $180 million in funding ing increases that outpaced
on the run for Manuel Benitez, However, his career went commitments. revenues.

a former child actor who au-
thorities say used a dumbbell
to beat his girl-
friend to death
in 2004.
Benitez was
shot and killed
by police Tues-
day night about
two hours after
he holed up in
the back of a
Chinese res- Manuel
taurant where Benitez
he’d taken his Shot by police
7-year-old son
hostage. He was armed with
two handguns and had threat-
ened to harm the boy, police
said.
Benjamin Everett, whose
mother was slain when he
was 3, was shot in the thigh
as a SWAT team burst into
the locked bathroom, but his
wound was not considered life-
threatening. The Los Angeles
County Sheriff’s Department,
which was investigating the
incident, released no informa-
tion on who wounded the boy.
He was listed in stable con-
dition at County-USC Medical
Center, hospital spokeswoman
Adelaida De La Cerda said.
Benitez, 38, was a child ac-
tor who had small roles un-
der the name Mark Everett in
nowhere and so did his life.
In 2000, he was arrested on
drug charges and in 2003 he
was arrested for hiding loaded
guns in his son’s stroller, lead-
ing to his conviction and a sen-
tence of probation, according
to the TV show “America’s
Most Wanted,” which obtained
videos of his questioning by
authorities in those cases and
repeatedly featured his case.
Benitez vanished with the
boy after his girlfriend and
Benjamin’s mother, Stephanie
Spears, was beaten to death
with a dumbbell on June 21,
2004, in their home in Haw-
thorne, a Los Angeles suburb.
He was charged with mur-
der and a state arrest warrant
was issued in 2005. A $20,000
reward was offered for infor-
mation leading to his capture.
On Monday afternoon, he
showed up at a strip mall in El
Monte, a blue-collar Los An-
geles suburb of about 116,000
people less than 25 miles from
Hawthorne.
“When officers arrived at
the location, they found the
man who produced a handgun.
The man grabbed the male ju-
venile described in the call and
placed him between himself
and the officer,” the Sheriff’s
Department statement said.
But Vaudt said the action
may not be enough to head off
more drastic spending adjust-
ments in the future.
“It’s going to require us to
do even more belt tightening
when it comes to Iowa’s bud-
get,” he said. “There’s no way
we can avoid impacting the
services that Iowans are re-
ceiving. We’re going to have to
look at people costs.”
Charles Krogmeier, direc-
tor of the state Department of
Management, said the gover-
nor has taken steps that are
permitted under his executive
authority to keep the state’s
budget in balance.
Additional measures likely
will be considered once the
Legislature convenes Jan. 12,
he said.
Krogmeier said downward
revenue projections made ear-
lier this month by a forecast-
ing panel put the current state
budget out of balance.
Culver’s action to cut
spending across the board by
$91.4 million and order other
cost-cutting measures restored
a positive balance within his
statutory powers, Krogmeier
said.
Vaudt, who noted he has
not ruled out a possible run
for governor in 2010, criticized
this Sunday
“The depth of the problem
that we’re dealing with now is
much more severe because of
the decisions that were made.
The really sad part is we set
ourselves up for a lot of the
problems that we’re facing,” he
said. “I would have been more
conservative, but I would have
started being more conserva- 2008 Flashback
tive so you wouldn’t have to
play that game” of midyear Readers pick the top
across the board cuts. stories of 2008
The two-term state auditor
said he does not support pro-
posals to lease or sell any state
assets, such as the lottery, as a
IOWA TODAY
budget solution.
“The sad part is we’ve had
piles of money, such as the to-
bacco securitization money,
and we’ve proved that we can’t Who is Coaching
really manage those funds
well. What we’d end of doing is the Women?
probably wasting those dollars
upfront and giving up a future Fewer women coaching
revenue stream,” he said. Division 1 women’s
“I think it’s a very short- sports
term, Band Aid approach for
what is a longer term problem
of bringing you’re ongoing
revenues in line with your on-
SPORTS
going spending,” Vaudt said of
selling off state assets. “I don’t
like the idea.”
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■ Contact the writer: (515) 243-7220 319-398-8333 or www.gazetteonline.com
or rod.boshart@gazcomm.com