Haitian Children Receive Prosthetic Limbs
MIAMI (CBS4) - Hundreds of Haitian children are living a life with out a limb.
The legs and feet of many of them were crushed in the earthquake nearly a year ago and to this date, most have not gotten the prosthetic needed to become mobile again.
But a new program developed in South Florida hopes to change that. Project Medishare is teaming up with the Knights of Columbus to outfit as many as 600 Haitian children and adults with prosthetic limbs. The program will also follow-up with them for at least two years to make sure the rehabilitation process has been positive.
"In Haiti there's a stigma for those that have lost limbs, that somehow something occurred in their life and that they have been marked as having been a bad person," said Dr. Bob Gailey of the University of Miami's Medical School in the Department of Physical Therapy. "Therefore the loss of limb is for letting people know that this is a person to stay away from. Imagine being a child and being faced with this for the rest of your life because of a natural disaster."
Dr. Gailey and several other doctors announced the partnership with the Knights of Columbus Monday morning outside of a large cargo truck in Hialeah packed with prosthetic limbs and the materials needed to make them. The shipment should head to Haiti on Tuesday. The goal is to have a new lab set up by early December so that children can enjoy Christmas on two limbs.
"You can imagine the psychological benefit of being able to look your peers in their eyes, one child to another versus being on the ground we're not even talking about crutches being scooted along the ground," said Dr. Barth Green of Project Medishare. "This is just extraordinary."
The program will also teach Haitians how to build, adjust and apply prosthetics for those who need them.
