Feet first

For patients, bunion surgery was one step back, then two forward, writes BENEDICT CAREY. 

VANITY alone didn’t deform Yong-Yong Tam’s feet. As a young woman, she had danced ballet, leaping high and landing on tender toes. Over the years she’d spent entire days stuffed into ski boots or swim fins. Then there was the 25-year hospital career, working 10 to 12 hours a day, sometimes without more than a minute to sit down.