<img class="" style="float: right;" src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-02_10/Salute1.jpg" width="233" height="175" hspace="4" vspace="4" /> Guatemala, a country of great natural beauty, is the Mayan heartland of Central America, with impressive ruins of the ancient Mayan civilization at Tikal and elsewhere. The Mayan culture still lives on, seen in customs, language, and the blazing colors of everyday Mayan dress. About 44 percent of the population is of Mayan descent. Guatemala also has suffered from 36 years of civil war, which only ended in 1996. About 75 percent of the population lives in poverty. For over a decade, Children of the Americas (COTA), based in Lexington, Kentucky, has been sending medical teams to the country's rural areas. In 2003, orthotists and prosthetists were added to the teams. Lance Hoag, CO, director of orthotics at Shriners Hospital in Lexington, and Wayne Cottle, CP, BOCP, RTP, senior prosthetist at the hospital, volunteered their skills. Both are employed by the Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care, based in Louisville, Kentucky, which staffs and operates the O&P department at Shriners. <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 30.2343%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-02_10/Salute2.jpg" alt="Lance Hoag fits child with therapeutic shoes." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Lance Hoag fits child with therapeutic shoes.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> "Although Shriners takes care of patients till they reach age 21, the children cant get visas to return to the United States after they are 18," Cottle explained, as quoted by PrimeCare O&P network, headquartered in Cordova, Tennessee. The Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care is a member of PrimeCare. <h4>Chance To Volunteer</h4> "Shriners still makes their prostheses, but there's no way to deliver them to the patients and fit them properly," Cottle said. "COTA offered me the opportunity to accompany their medical team as a volunteer, and I couldnt pass it up." In January 2004, Keith Senn, partner and CFO of the Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care, accompanied the team to Guatemala with his wife Susan as additional volunteers. "It was an incredible experience," said Senn. "I really appreciate how competent COTA's representatives are. Both Jody Greenlee, RN [COTA coordinator] and Rosemary Vance [COTA executive director] did a spectacular job and never got tired, never showed signs of stress." <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 32.659%; height: 234px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-02_10/Salute3.jpg" alt="Wayne Cottle assesses child for upper prostheses." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Wayne Cottle assesses child for upper prostheses.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> A systems engineer also accompanied the team to handle any mechanical problems with electricity, plumbing, and general maintenance. His presence was vital, Senn said. "The equipment we brought kept blowing fuses. There wasn't enough electricity running through the surgery center, but our engineer was able to reroute extra power, and that was very helpful." As volunteers, Senn and his wife were always busy: She assisted in surgery while Senn did "a little bit of everything necessary," including trips into the city of San Juan to pick up basic supplies and prescriptions, as well as helping with crowd control. "Doctors would see patients from 8 AM to 8 PM, and at the end of such long days, we were all exhausted," Senn said. Additional trips were made in 2004, including one in October, during which Cottle fabricated and delivered prostheses to 14 amputee patients. Donors included Ohio Willow Wood, Mt. Sterling, Ohio; and Fillauer Inc., Chattanooga, Tennessee, among others. Ohio Willow Wood donated SACH and single-axis feet and Fillauer donated plane fares and componentry. Cottle also took measurements and casts for 14 more patients; the prostheses were delivered and fitted in January. <h4>Major Causes of Disability</h4> What challenges does the medical team face in Guatemala? <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 35.3325%; height: 266px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-02_10/Salute4.jpg" alt="Jody Greenlee (left) and Rosemary Vance of COTA." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Jody Greenlee (left) and Rosemary Vance of COTA.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> "There's such a dichotomy in Guatemala," said Greenlee, as quoted by PrimeCare. Greenlee added, "You'll be in the middle of a very modern city with high-rise buildings, and an hour later you can be in a place like San Juan, where you see nothing but people in indigenous dress, carrying baskets of fruit on their heads, and with no running water and electricity. "The problem in Guatemala is that only about 25-30 percent of the people have electricity," Greenlee continued. "So if their neighbors have it, they will try to hotwire the electricity from their neighbor's home to hook up to their house. There are an awful lot of live wires laying around. We saw two specific cases that are still haunting me - because these children were fresh traumatic amputations. One child lost his leg, and one little girl lost both of her arms at the elbow; both had touched live wires. The little girl had touched them in November and blew off both of her arms. "Also, many people still cook over open fires, and the toddlers or older children will fall into the fire. Since very few people have hot water heaters, the parents will boil hot water for baths, and before they can get it mixed, the children will fall in. The result is surgical amputations of feet and hands from excessive burns that don't heal. So we have a fair amount of O&P cases there." Greenlee also notes that there are a great number of club feet and amniotic banding cases in Guatemala. "Next to the cleft palate cases, that's the most predominant birth defect that we see there." <h4>Returning Healthy Children</h4> COTA is one of only two organizations in Guatemala that is allowed to get medical visas for children and bring them to the United States for medical care and foster home accommodations during their stay, since COTA is also licensed in Kentucky to provide foster care as a child placement agency. "We feel very privileged to have that sense of trust with the embassy," Greenlee noted. "They know that we will do the best for the children while they are here, and that we will always return them back home, which is important. I think it's one of the greatest gifts that our program offers - to take the emotional and financial heartache of a disabled child away from the family whose resources are so strapped already and give them back a healthy child. This allows them to use their resources to benefit everyone instead of just concentrating on trying to keep one child alive - it's a huge gift to everybody." <i>For more information, visit <a href="https://opedge.com/2839">www.childrenoftheamericas.com</a> or e-mail Jody Greenlee: <a href="mailto:green71957@aol.com">green71957@aol.com</a></i>
<img class="" style="float: right;" src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-02_10/Salute1.jpg" width="233" height="175" hspace="4" vspace="4" /> Guatemala, a country of great natural beauty, is the Mayan heartland of Central America, with impressive ruins of the ancient Mayan civilization at Tikal and elsewhere. The Mayan culture still lives on, seen in customs, language, and the blazing colors of everyday Mayan dress. About 44 percent of the population is of Mayan descent. Guatemala also has suffered from 36 years of civil war, which only ended in 1996. About 75 percent of the population lives in poverty. For over a decade, Children of the Americas (COTA), based in Lexington, Kentucky, has been sending medical teams to the country's rural areas. In 2003, orthotists and prosthetists were added to the teams. Lance Hoag, CO, director of orthotics at Shriners Hospital in Lexington, and Wayne Cottle, CP, BOCP, RTP, senior prosthetist at the hospital, volunteered their skills. Both are employed by the Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care, based in Louisville, Kentucky, which staffs and operates the O&P department at Shriners. <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 30.2343%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-02_10/Salute2.jpg" alt="Lance Hoag fits child with therapeutic shoes." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Lance Hoag fits child with therapeutic shoes.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> "Although Shriners takes care of patients till they reach age 21, the children cant get visas to return to the United States after they are 18," Cottle explained, as quoted by PrimeCare O&P network, headquartered in Cordova, Tennessee. The Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care is a member of PrimeCare. <h4>Chance To Volunteer</h4> "Shriners still makes their prostheses, but there's no way to deliver them to the patients and fit them properly," Cottle said. "COTA offered me the opportunity to accompany their medical team as a volunteer, and I couldnt pass it up." In January 2004, Keith Senn, partner and CFO of the Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care, accompanied the team to Guatemala with his wife Susan as additional volunteers. "It was an incredible experience," said Senn. "I really appreciate how competent COTA's representatives are. Both Jody Greenlee, RN [COTA coordinator] and Rosemary Vance [COTA executive director] did a spectacular job and never got tired, never showed signs of stress." <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 32.659%; height: 234px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-02_10/Salute3.jpg" alt="Wayne Cottle assesses child for upper prostheses." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Wayne Cottle assesses child for upper prostheses.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> A systems engineer also accompanied the team to handle any mechanical problems with electricity, plumbing, and general maintenance. His presence was vital, Senn said. "The equipment we brought kept blowing fuses. There wasn't enough electricity running through the surgery center, but our engineer was able to reroute extra power, and that was very helpful." As volunteers, Senn and his wife were always busy: She assisted in surgery while Senn did "a little bit of everything necessary," including trips into the city of San Juan to pick up basic supplies and prescriptions, as well as helping with crowd control. "Doctors would see patients from 8 AM to 8 PM, and at the end of such long days, we were all exhausted," Senn said. Additional trips were made in 2004, including one in October, during which Cottle fabricated and delivered prostheses to 14 amputee patients. Donors included Ohio Willow Wood, Mt. Sterling, Ohio; and Fillauer Inc., Chattanooga, Tennessee, among others. Ohio Willow Wood donated SACH and single-axis feet and Fillauer donated plane fares and componentry. Cottle also took measurements and casts for 14 more patients; the prostheses were delivered and fitted in January. <h4>Major Causes of Disability</h4> What challenges does the medical team face in Guatemala? <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 35.3325%; height: 266px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-02_10/Salute4.jpg" alt="Jody Greenlee (left) and Rosemary Vance of COTA." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Jody Greenlee (left) and Rosemary Vance of COTA.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> "There's such a dichotomy in Guatemala," said Greenlee, as quoted by PrimeCare. Greenlee added, "You'll be in the middle of a very modern city with high-rise buildings, and an hour later you can be in a place like San Juan, where you see nothing but people in indigenous dress, carrying baskets of fruit on their heads, and with no running water and electricity. "The problem in Guatemala is that only about 25-30 percent of the people have electricity," Greenlee continued. "So if their neighbors have it, they will try to hotwire the electricity from their neighbor's home to hook up to their house. There are an awful lot of live wires laying around. We saw two specific cases that are still haunting me - because these children were fresh traumatic amputations. One child lost his leg, and one little girl lost both of her arms at the elbow; both had touched live wires. The little girl had touched them in November and blew off both of her arms. "Also, many people still cook over open fires, and the toddlers or older children will fall into the fire. Since very few people have hot water heaters, the parents will boil hot water for baths, and before they can get it mixed, the children will fall in. The result is surgical amputations of feet and hands from excessive burns that don't heal. So we have a fair amount of O&P cases there." Greenlee also notes that there are a great number of club feet and amniotic banding cases in Guatemala. "Next to the cleft palate cases, that's the most predominant birth defect that we see there." <h4>Returning Healthy Children</h4> COTA is one of only two organizations in Guatemala that is allowed to get medical visas for children and bring them to the United States for medical care and foster home accommodations during their stay, since COTA is also licensed in Kentucky to provide foster care as a child placement agency. "We feel very privileged to have that sense of trust with the embassy," Greenlee noted. "They know that we will do the best for the children while they are here, and that we will always return them back home, which is important. I think it's one of the greatest gifts that our program offers - to take the emotional and financial heartache of a disabled child away from the family whose resources are so strapped already and give them back a healthy child. This allows them to use their resources to benefit everyone instead of just concentrating on trying to keep one child alive - it's a huge gift to everybody." <i>For more information, visit <a href="https://opedge.com/2839">www.childrenoftheamericas.com</a> or e-mail Jody Greenlee: <a href="mailto:green71957@aol.com">green71957@aol.com</a></i>