A pair of shipping containers outfitted with a self-contained prosthetics lab was trucked out of Santa Rosa, California, on May 18,to make its way to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The labs are meant to help scores of Haitians needing prosthetic limbs to replace arms and legs lost in the devastating January 12 earthquake, according to an article in the Times-Standard, Eureka, California. The effort was coordinated by recently formed Humboldt Helps Haiti, a community-action group organized by Northern California medical professionals, and the nonprofit group, Prosthetika, which is headed by Jon Batzdorff, CPO. It was funded mainly through local donations- about $85,000 was raised in Humboldt County, coming in donations of all sizes.
The seed for the project was planted when two Eureka, California, orthopedic surgeons, Asa Stockton, MD, and Nathan Shishido, MD, joined a team of medical professionals on a relief mission in Haiti shortly after the magnitude-7 quake severely damaged the nation’s capital. Stockton said that he and Shishido were shocked at the lack of medical infrastructure in the country and horrified at the numbers of amputees they saw. Having raised funds for their mission through Humboldt Helps Haiti, the two then decided to turn their attention toward building a prosthetics lab that could provide a sustainable source of prosthetics for the city.
Batzdorff’s group is well-versed in the business of constructing prosthetics labs, having built them in Turkey, Armenia, and other places, but he told the Times-Standard that this project is unique in that the lab was built within a pair of shipping containers. He said this was important because building one from scratch in Haiti simply wasn’t feasible, and the project’s team wanted to make something that would hit the ground ready to operate. The goal, Batzdorff was quoted as saying, is to have the lab be self-sustaining and locally run at the end of a two-year commitment.
“Ultimately, the idea is that the Haitian trainees will be experienced enough that we no longer have to go down there,” he said. He added that though the unit is being sent with 1.5 tons of plaster and a variety of other supplies, there will be a continuing need for funding to purchase supplies.
For more information, visit www.prosthetika.com
