Friday, March 29, 2024

Re: Guatemala prefabricated sockets ?

Heinz Trebbin

Dear Mr. Wood,
I just came along two mails that you had send out in october and
november 2002 regarding your visit to Guatemala and your interest to
help in O P care in this region.
I would like to congratulate you for your willingness to help, as there
is a lot of need in all the Central American countries.
I have been working for more than 9 years in the region, as the Central
American coordinator of a program of the German Technical Cooperation
(GTZ).The aim is to develop and promote sustainable P O services in El
Salvador and the region. Our local counterpart is the University Don
Bosco, which with our assistance has established a school to train
prosthesists and orthotists from all over Latin America to an ISPO Cat.
II Prosthetist/Orthotist level. Currently we have about 60 students in
our 3 year program, including students from Guatemala.
I would like to offer our assistance and advice in coordinating future
activities of this kind in order to get an optimum use of any resource
available. Regarding you intention I’d like to raise my concern about
the following areas:

* Have you looked into the available P O services in Guatemala in
order to coordinate your activities and to find out about the
need. There are several P O facilities in the country and by now 5
people have graduated from our 3 year training program and have a
ISPO category II accreditation.
* You mentioned that you would like to train an orthopedic surgeon
in your clinic back home in order to deliver P O services in
Guatemala. I think we should be careful about such an approach and
not think that a short instruction is sufficient. We shouldn’t
believe that that because we are in a developing country we don’t
have to deliver the same quality of fit to the user as we would in
our own countries. This would degrade our highly professional
field in something you can learn on the fast track. I ask myself
if a orthopedic surgeon would train one of us for a few days and
than send him of to a developing country to do surgery.
* Overall I would like to say, that any effort we do in developing
countries should be based on a careful evaluation of the situation
with the aim of long term sustainable results. To do this we have
to cooperate with capable local counterparts and built up local
capacity through advice and training.

I hope you don’t interpret this mail in a negative way, because I know
that there are many people which have very honorable intentions to give
support and I would like to offer our advice and cooperation in this
regard. Please feel free to visit our facility in El Slavador and
contact me at any time. You may also want to check out websites listed
below. I look forward to your response.

Best regards,
Heinz Trebbin

***********************************
Heinz Trebbin
Coordinador Proyecto UDB/GTZ
P.O.Box 1611
San Salvador
El Salvador
Tel/Fax: – -503-291 95 93

www.ortotec.com
www.ortoedu.com
www.gtz.de
************************************

Jake Wood, CP wrote:

>Need recommendations!
>
>Recently I wrote I was going to Guatemala with “Hearts In Motion” ( a
>nonprofit medical care charitable organization ). Thinking I was just going
>down to assess the situation on providing prosthetic care to the needy, I
>ended up coming back with four transradial casts, measuring one transtibial
>and measuring nine transfemoral amputees.
>
>I could not leave Guatemala without doing something. Does anyone know of any
>manufacturers of prefabricated B/K and A/K sockets? I know 6 to 8 years ago I
>was fitting A/K adjustable socket preparatories on my patients. I called a
>few suppliers recently and they stated they do not make the sockets anymore.
>
>My short term goal is to fit these prefabricated sockets. I am trying to
>arrange for these limbs to be fabricate in which I will travel to Guatemala
>again in February 2003. One major charitable organization has initially
>stated they will try and help. I am trying to arrange component through them.
>I do not believe they have prefabricated sockets.
>
>Long term goal is to work with “Hearts In Motion” and build a free O&P
>clinic. They will be putting up a rehab building where the O&P office will be
>set up.
>
>Thanks to all of you that responded with recommendations and your experiences
>in working third world countries.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>
>Jake R. Wood C.P., F.A.A.O.P.
>
>
>O&P Associates, Inc. O&P
>Associates, Inc.
>10101 Innovation Dr., Suite 500 1111
>Delafield Ave., Suite 200
>Milwaukee, WI 53226
>Waukesha, WI 53186
>414-257-2727
>262-436-0079
>414-257-9898 (fax)
>262-436-0073 (fax)
>
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