Day 5: A great finish

Thursday was a quiet day for everyone. About nine patients made it to the clinic and were able to come back on Friday. We were very excited to see so many patients waiting when we arrived at the clinic this morning AND the electricity was on!

One orphanage team departed from the clinic. They were pleasantly surprised to see the equipment they had provided earlier in the week in use. This team had a very productive day fine tuning the equipment and signing off with the caregivers. They received kudos from Viximar, a local social worker. He was very impressed with the productivity of the team.

The Kay Kapab clinic was very busy today. Dr. Bernard Nau, an orthopedic surgeon has clinic on Fridays. He is an incredibly dedicated person who was born here, trained in Belgium and then returned to practice. Our entire team was excited to see and work with him.

A total of 54 people were treated today and 138 for the week. This does not include the children seen at the orphanages.

We tried to finish as much fabrication as we could today to not leave the technicians overwhelmed. Terry Kufner, our team technician was everywhere at once.

He fabricated a transtibial prosthetic socket for a one inch residual limb. We had casted this gentleman for a mid thigh length socket, pelite liner, locking knee and endoskeletal components. He also took a KAFO from start to finish in about three hours, fabricated an AE socket and one other AFO. One lady with a transfemoral amputation was casted. We modified this and three other transfemoral sockets. The technicians can then fabricate these sockets next week.

Mark Kroll, BOC orthotist, fabricated, fitted and modified many devices for children. He was able to spend a significant amount of time with the orthotic technician Flavienne. She is a very gifted technician who will be a great asset as she gains more experience.

Clifford and Edelynne are the two prosthetic technicians. Cliff has trained in the United States for six months and is in charge of coordinating the orthotics and prosthetics. Edelynne is becoming quite skilled with transfemoral prosthetics and will quickly gain confidence with more experience.

We would like to thank everyone who has made this a successful week. The political situation in Haiti has certainly made it very interesting. We have all joked that we will have great stories when we get home and in the future for our grandchildren.

Because of the unrest we have decide to return home two days early. We had originally planned to visit a beach resort after we completed our clinic work. The resort is very near the towns of Gonaives and St. Marc, where the manifestations have been the most violent.

The Minnesota team of Healing Hands for Haiti would like to thank Tony Barr and the Barr Foundation for donating componentry and supplies for some of the people we fit this week. We are also deeply indebted to the HHHF team from Canada, and especially Colleen O'Connell and Kirsten Simonsen. They provided an unbelievable amount of help, information and support when they were here and before we traveled to Haiti.

We all are so grateful to our families, coworkers and friends for all of the prayers, support and assistance. Without them we would not have been able to make this a successful trip.

Lastly we want to thank the Healing Hands staff for all of the work they have done.

We have enjoyed our stay and hope to return again.

Day 5: A great finish

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Day 4: It’s Getting Interesting…

OrPro Views Space-Age O&P Technology

OrPro Views Space-Age O&P Technology

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