Artificial limbs in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—The only place in Haiti that makes artificial limbs and teaches people how to use them was destroyed in the earthquake, a loss that symbolizes the hard road ahead for this impoverished nation's countless new amputees. Healing Hands for Haiti, a nonprofit with a rambling headquarters in the capital's Delmas neighborhood, has treated more than 25,000 people over 10 years. Now, as experts estimate that as many as 40,000 people underwent amputations in the quake's aftermath, the group's facilities are in a shambles.

Healing Hands is among many organizations and private doctors that are attempting to create, virtually from scratch, a system to treat amputees, who need urgent care now and maintenance for decades. The immediate need is for crutches and exercise therapy that will keep remaining muscles functioning. Artificial limbs, once fitted, need to be changed every three to five years, and every six months for growing children.

A group, headed by Handicap International with representatives from the Haitian government as well as Healing Hands, Doctors Without Borders, Christian Blind Mission International and others, will start producing temporary "emergency" prostheses in mid-February with salvaged equipment from Healing Hands in a tent compound near the Port-au-Prince airport. The group is planning to build at least one more new prosthetic factory in addition to the one Healing Hands intends to rebuild. The goal is to train workers to use local material to produce limbs at a cost residents can sustain—about $35 to $75 each for materials and labor.

Rose Charities was Canadian founded in Cambodia in 1998 as a response to a similar terrible amputee scenario - in those years through land-mine injuries. Several excellent prosthetic organizations, including Handicap International, VVI, Cambodia Trust etc,  were functioning in the country but medical services were very limited to prepare the shattered limbs for the artificial limbs. Working with these groups, Rose Charities provided surgical facilities to allow the limbs to be properly fitted.   Rose Charies is currently contributing to AMDA orthopaedic surgery teams through AMDA Canada in Gonaieves, Haiti.

The problem is among many acute medical issues facing Haiti. Trauma cases are decreasing, doctors say, but more patients now require mental-health care. Also on the rise are cases of diarrhea, tetanus and chicken pox,.