Bone Setters of Ynys Môn

This is the story of the birth and evolution of orthopaedic surgery and its connection to Wales. It began when the body of a small boy, barely alive, was washed up on the shore of Ynys y Fydlyn on the North West Coast of Anglesey. No one knows from where the ship came, and now one really knows the exact year. But the local doctor placed him in the care of a local family at a nearby farm close to the Church in Llanfairynghornwy. They soon spotted that he had a rare gift. He was able to dislocate limbs of chickens and put them back in place perfectly and as he grew up his talent was used to fix the bones of bigger animals, including humans. The local doctor who had found him a home used to take him on his rounds. But the gift didn't end with him. His descendants, down many generations, had the same skill. One indeed became the father of Orthopaedic surgery, Hugh Owen Thomas - having devised the famous Thomas Splint which saved thousands of lives in WW 1 by allowing field medics to save broken limbs. The death rate on the field fell from 80% to 20%. Another relative established the Gobowen Hospital which was the first of its kind in orthopaedic care and he was the first in the world to use X-rays in orthopaedics.
The story is told through the eyes of our three contributors. Dr Dylan Jones - a doctor and a lecturer at Bangor University who has been fascinated by the story of the bonesetters. We have Dyfrig Roberts - a descendant himself, but on his mother's side. He doesn't have the skill - probably because he inherited the wrong chromosome. Then there is orthopaedic surgeon Awen Iorwerth - who was raised on Ynys Mon - and whilst she is no relation - she is one of a group of pupils at a local school that all became orthopaedic surgeons. We take her to visit the Church at Llanfairynghornwy to visit the grave of the first bone-setter - the young child washed up after the shipwreck. She finds his grave - quite an emotional experience for her.
The story relates Ynys Mon's gift to the world - the science of orthopaedics.