<h4>Houston Evacuee Survey Reveals Sobering Statistics</h4> <img style="float: right;" src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-12_01/fea1-1.jpg" hspace="4" vspace="4" /> <b><i>In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many in the O&P field have offered financial assistance,support, and relief to the victims of what has been called the greatest natural disaster the US has ever faced. In the past several months, the public has been inundated with media reports of horrific conditions in the New Orleans Superdome, rancid floodwater-drowned streets, poor and elderly victims trapped in attics, and animals, including cherished pets being left behind to fend for themselves.</i></b> <b><i>Heroes have emerged, rescues have inspired, and tales of unbelievable courage and compassion have resounded. What are the stories of the disabled, the O&P clinics, manufacturers, and professionals? Reports of heroism, generosity, compassion, and caring within the O&P community also abound. </i></b> <i>The Washington Post</i>, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health randomly surveyed 680 New Orleans evacuees living in Houston, Texas, shelters with the goal of capturing the evacuees' experiences and attitudes from September 10 through 12. "The <i>Post</i>-Kaiser-Harvard poll suggests these evacuees will start their lives with virtually nothing," wrote <i>Washington Post</i> staff writers Richard Morin and Lisa Rein (<i>The Washington Post</i>, Sept. 16, 2005, pg. A01). Face-to-face interviews revealed, "seven in ten currently do not have a savings or checking account. Just as many have no usable credit cards. One in eight was unemployed when the storm hit. Seven in ten said they have no insurance to cover their losses. Fully half have no health insurance. Four in ten suffer from heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and/or are physically disabled." In addition, 14 percent reported a family member, neighbor, or friend died in the storm or flooding, while more than half reported that they continue to be separated from missing members of their immediate family. <h4>O&P Listservers Unite Needs, Resources</h4> <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right;"> <tbody> <tr> <td><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-12_01/fea1-2.jpg" alt="Believed to be out of New Orleans, this family rests in the Houston Astrodome. Photographer: Daniel Cima/American Red Cross/The News Market" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Believed to be out of New Orleans, this family rests in the Houston Astrodome. Photographer: Daniel Cima/American Red Cross/The News Market</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> In light of the apparent needs, O&P professionals from around the country offered products, supplies, and services on AMP-L and OANDP-L listservers, in response to a request to unite their efforts posted on <a href="mailto:AMP-L@u.washington.edu">AMP-L@u.washington.edu</a>, a site for amputees started in 1995. "It was good to use the resources available to gather information and spread it to those who might benefit," commented Wayne Renardson, AMP-L moderator. The offers were generous and varied from donations of shoes to post-mastectomy bras to counseling services. One supplier posted, "[we are] willing to provide any of our materials for the victims of Katrina at no cost." A woman offered to donate 18 prosthetic feet; a collection from her son's growth over the years. Others posted the names and locations of their practices and offered: "Anything we can do to assist." <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 31.4728%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-12_01/fea1-3.jpg" alt="Houston Astrodome" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Houston Astrodome</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> The American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists (the Academy) issued this statement: "The Academy is making an effort to contact all of our members who were working in states directly impacted by hurricane Katrina and the Academy's president has told them we are looking at how we can work over the next year to make sure that we channel our energies into helping those O&P practitioners, their families, and their patients." The Academy, the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association (AOPA), and the American Board for Certification in Orthotics and Prosthetics (ABC) have joined in offering a website to connect persons, companies, and other organizations wanting to help with those needing help. The site can be accessed from AOPA at <a href="https://opedge.com/2887">www.aopanet.org/opcc/</a> and from oandp.com at <a href="https://opedge.com/2888">www.oandp.com/resources/katrina/</a> Aetrex Worldwide, headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, donated 7,000 pairs of shoes, 250 of those to SPS (SPS), Alpharetta, Georgia. Amoena, Marietta, Georgia, provider of breast forms, partial symmetry shapers, specialty textiles, swimwear, and accessories for women after breast surgery, donated 5,000 bras to the Texas "Drop Yer Drawers" organization. Dee Smith, operations director for the Salvation Army, recipient of the donations said in a press release, "For many who have lost everything, new underwear is symbolic of a new start." Orthotic & Prosthetic Group of America (OPGA), headquartered in Waterloo, Iowa, offered to coordinate the distribution of donations directly to members providing care to Katrina survivors, stating, "Immediate short term needs are as basic as shoes and socks for diabetics. For amputees, stump socks, liners, and sleeves for those whose prosthesis made it out in workable condition. Stump shrinkers and lamb's wool will also provide options for those in the situations that have no prosthesis that is wearable until care is obtained." Out on a Limb (OOAL)-Memphis, Tennessee, Area Limb Loss Support Group facilitator William Samuels stated, "The biggest concern expressed to us by the Red Cross is about amputees who either during the hurricane, or when evacuating, developed dangerous infections in residual limbs and are being treated with tissue grafts/revision surgery." OOAL, in conjunction with the Amputee Coalition of America (ACA), is making an effort to locate amputees and people facing amputation in the Memphis area; Mississippi; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and northeastern Arkansas. In addition, the ACA is serving Texas, Alabama, and Florida. OOAL provides amputees with information regarding medical, prosthetic, and mobility providers. Ohio Willow Wood, Mt. Sterling, Ohio; SPS (SPS), and the Barr Foundation, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, also are among the donors; a complete list can be viewed at <a href="https://opedge.com/2889">www.AMP-L.com</a> or <a href="https://opedge.com/2890">www.OANDP-L.com</a> <h4>Houston Practitioners Provide Services, Supplies</h4> <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 35.6632%; height: 268px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-12_01/fea1-4.jpg" alt="Hurricane Katrina: Biloxi, Mississippi. Gene Dailey/American Red Cross/The News Market." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Hurricane Katrina: Biloxi, Mississippi. Gene Dailey/American Red Cross/The News Market.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Near the Houston Astrodome, where more than 12,000 hurricane evacuees are being housed, Joe Smith* is one of many practitioners providing free rehabilitation, adjustments, and prosthetic supplies in association with the Barr Foundation, SPS, and the Houston, Texas, Police Department (HPD). "It has been heartwarming to see how our community rallied in support," Smith commented. "Every place I contacted said they would help; people are giving up office space, some are offering [professional services]." Responses resulted from the request he posted on AMP-L and OANDP-L. Smith humbly said, "I really didn't do anything. People contacted me and offered to help." When one of his patients, an HPD member, repeatedly rescheduled his appointments, it occurred to Smith to ask him what the HPD's needs were. The result was a collaboration of efforts within the Astrodome and the surrounding O&P community. Faced with devastation and loss, many evacuees were least concerned about their prostheses. "At first we didn't see as many people as we thought we would," Smith explained. "[Survivors] are initially concerned with their family's safety and getting situated. They were just coming in to get crutches for the time being. They didn't have time to get new prostheses." He continued, "Now that things are settling down from [Hurricane] Rita, we are starting to see more people trickle in." At a rate of about four to eight a week, most of his new patients have lost or ruined a limb in the process of getting out of the flood. Smith recalled a man that had been wearing a two-year-old liner and an old, cracked leg he had found in the back of a car. One man, living with 28 members of his family in one house, doesn't have time to go see him. It is "the resiliency of these people" that most surprised Smith. "Most people are coming in and they're thankful that nobody died. Mementos are the things they think about. One man hopes to find his Little League picture from 25 years ago," he recounted. "The mood is really upbeat and somewhat philosophical," he added. As Rita threatened Houston, another practitioner, John Gibson, LP, CPO, became an evacuee, boarded up his home, and drove out of the city. He experienced "unbelievable stress" and a sobering anxiety that his house may not be there when he returned. Though his home was spared, his patients, some who lost everything after Katrina, comforted him. "One man told me, 'Not many people are given a second chance at life. I've got nothing to hold me back now,'" he recalled, adding, "It's been an eye-opening experience for me. It's made me re-evaluate what's important in my own life; family, friends, and my fellow man." <i>*Name has been changed to accommodate practitioner's request to remain an anonymous provider.</i> <h4>Young Spearheads Recovery Operation</h4> <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 23.047%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-12_01/fea1-5.jpg" alt="Mark Young, MD" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Mark Young, MD</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Mark A. Young, MD, MBA, FACP, chair of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM), Exchange Committee, in collaboration with Mathew Lee, MD, medical director of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York, New York, organized "Operation Functional Recovery." As part of the Katrina Rehabilitation Humanitarian Project, "a nationwide effort to establish rehabilitation teams to meet the emerging disabilities and functional deficits that will surface post-Katrina," they have assembled an interdisciplinary team of more than 500 volunteers, including orthotists and prosthetists, from around the country and internationally. "We're trying to unite the entire rehabilitation community with a common good--to address the functional needs of Katrina survivors," Young commented. Those needs may include "limb amputation, pain management, traumatic injuries, and anoxic injuries. "There are a large number of evacuees with pre-existing conditions, such as peripheral vascular disease and diabetes, as well as de novo wound infections that have developed due to [the flood] conditions," Young explained. "Due to poor sanitary conditions and lack of public utilities, severe medical conditions, such as vibrio cholera and acute diarrhea are seen. Our number-one goal is to meet medical needs, limb salvage prevention, compassionate skin management and [to ensure] those with preexisting amputations continue with rehabilitation." <i>For more information or to volunteer, contact:</i><a href="mailto:katrinarehab@gmail.com">katrinarehab@gmail.com</a> <h4>Helpful DMERC Information</h4> Those who are currently seeing Katrina-affected patients, or those who have facilities in the affected regions, will benefit from the following information: After the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association (AOPA) requested that Medicare temporarily suspend auditing of facilities in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, Region C agreed to cease auditing, and expedite and release money from existing claims. AOPA stated, "Our request [was] aimed at ensuring that O&P practitioners in the affected region will have an adequate funding stream to repair and/or rebuild their patient care facilities." Durable Medical Equipment Regional Carriers (DMERC) staff will provide "special handling of disaster claims when they are submitted as paper claims (no electronic claims will be treated as "disaster claims") and when "DISASTER CLAIM" is written in the upper right-hand corner. Situations that may qualify are: 1) Your patient records have been destroyed. 2) You are treating a patient from an area affected by Hurricane Katrina and neither you nor the patient has appropriate documentation (for example, earlier patient notes, prescriptions, etc.) 3) Your patient has lost his/her device as a result of the hurricane and you are simply replacing it," posted AOPA. Though the O&P community can be a competitive environment at times, many have united their efforts; together offering aid in Katrina's aftermath. "It has been heartwarming to see how our community rallied in support," Smith concluded. <i>Sherry Metzger, MS, is a freelance writer with degrees in anatomy and neurobiology. She is based in Westminster, Colorado, and may be reached at metzgerfive@hotmail.com</i>
<h4>Houston Evacuee Survey Reveals Sobering Statistics</h4> <img style="float: right;" src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-12_01/fea1-1.jpg" hspace="4" vspace="4" /> <b><i>In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many in the O&P field have offered financial assistance,support, and relief to the victims of what has been called the greatest natural disaster the US has ever faced. In the past several months, the public has been inundated with media reports of horrific conditions in the New Orleans Superdome, rancid floodwater-drowned streets, poor and elderly victims trapped in attics, and animals, including cherished pets being left behind to fend for themselves.</i></b> <b><i>Heroes have emerged, rescues have inspired, and tales of unbelievable courage and compassion have resounded. What are the stories of the disabled, the O&P clinics, manufacturers, and professionals? Reports of heroism, generosity, compassion, and caring within the O&P community also abound. </i></b> <i>The Washington Post</i>, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health randomly surveyed 680 New Orleans evacuees living in Houston, Texas, shelters with the goal of capturing the evacuees' experiences and attitudes from September 10 through 12. "The <i>Post</i>-Kaiser-Harvard poll suggests these evacuees will start their lives with virtually nothing," wrote <i>Washington Post</i> staff writers Richard Morin and Lisa Rein (<i>The Washington Post</i>, Sept. 16, 2005, pg. A01). Face-to-face interviews revealed, "seven in ten currently do not have a savings or checking account. Just as many have no usable credit cards. One in eight was unemployed when the storm hit. Seven in ten said they have no insurance to cover their losses. Fully half have no health insurance. Four in ten suffer from heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and/or are physically disabled." In addition, 14 percent reported a family member, neighbor, or friend died in the storm or flooding, while more than half reported that they continue to be separated from missing members of their immediate family. <h4>O&P Listservers Unite Needs, Resources</h4> <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right;"> <tbody> <tr> <td><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-12_01/fea1-2.jpg" alt="Believed to be out of New Orleans, this family rests in the Houston Astrodome. Photographer: Daniel Cima/American Red Cross/The News Market" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Believed to be out of New Orleans, this family rests in the Houston Astrodome. Photographer: Daniel Cima/American Red Cross/The News Market</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> In light of the apparent needs, O&P professionals from around the country offered products, supplies, and services on AMP-L and OANDP-L listservers, in response to a request to unite their efforts posted on <a href="mailto:AMP-L@u.washington.edu">AMP-L@u.washington.edu</a>, a site for amputees started in 1995. "It was good to use the resources available to gather information and spread it to those who might benefit," commented Wayne Renardson, AMP-L moderator. The offers were generous and varied from donations of shoes to post-mastectomy bras to counseling services. One supplier posted, "[we are] willing to provide any of our materials for the victims of Katrina at no cost." A woman offered to donate 18 prosthetic feet; a collection from her son's growth over the years. Others posted the names and locations of their practices and offered: "Anything we can do to assist." <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 31.4728%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-12_01/fea1-3.jpg" alt="Houston Astrodome" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Houston Astrodome</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> The American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists (the Academy) issued this statement: "The Academy is making an effort to contact all of our members who were working in states directly impacted by hurricane Katrina and the Academy's president has told them we are looking at how we can work over the next year to make sure that we channel our energies into helping those O&P practitioners, their families, and their patients." The Academy, the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association (AOPA), and the American Board for Certification in Orthotics and Prosthetics (ABC) have joined in offering a website to connect persons, companies, and other organizations wanting to help with those needing help. The site can be accessed from AOPA at <a href="https://opedge.com/2887">www.aopanet.org/opcc/</a> and from oandp.com at <a href="https://opedge.com/2888">www.oandp.com/resources/katrina/</a> Aetrex Worldwide, headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, donated 7,000 pairs of shoes, 250 of those to SPS (SPS), Alpharetta, Georgia. Amoena, Marietta, Georgia, provider of breast forms, partial symmetry shapers, specialty textiles, swimwear, and accessories for women after breast surgery, donated 5,000 bras to the Texas "Drop Yer Drawers" organization. Dee Smith, operations director for the Salvation Army, recipient of the donations said in a press release, "For many who have lost everything, new underwear is symbolic of a new start." Orthotic & Prosthetic Group of America (OPGA), headquartered in Waterloo, Iowa, offered to coordinate the distribution of donations directly to members providing care to Katrina survivors, stating, "Immediate short term needs are as basic as shoes and socks for diabetics. For amputees, stump socks, liners, and sleeves for those whose prosthesis made it out in workable condition. Stump shrinkers and lamb's wool will also provide options for those in the situations that have no prosthesis that is wearable until care is obtained." Out on a Limb (OOAL)-Memphis, Tennessee, Area Limb Loss Support Group facilitator William Samuels stated, "The biggest concern expressed to us by the Red Cross is about amputees who either during the hurricane, or when evacuating, developed dangerous infections in residual limbs and are being treated with tissue grafts/revision surgery." OOAL, in conjunction with the Amputee Coalition of America (ACA), is making an effort to locate amputees and people facing amputation in the Memphis area; Mississippi; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and northeastern Arkansas. In addition, the ACA is serving Texas, Alabama, and Florida. OOAL provides amputees with information regarding medical, prosthetic, and mobility providers. Ohio Willow Wood, Mt. Sterling, Ohio; SPS (SPS), and the Barr Foundation, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, also are among the donors; a complete list can be viewed at <a href="https://opedge.com/2889">www.AMP-L.com</a> or <a href="https://opedge.com/2890">www.OANDP-L.com</a> <h4>Houston Practitioners Provide Services, Supplies</h4> <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 35.6632%; height: 268px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-12_01/fea1-4.jpg" alt="Hurricane Katrina: Biloxi, Mississippi. Gene Dailey/American Red Cross/The News Market." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Hurricane Katrina: Biloxi, Mississippi. Gene Dailey/American Red Cross/The News Market.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Near the Houston Astrodome, where more than 12,000 hurricane evacuees are being housed, Joe Smith* is one of many practitioners providing free rehabilitation, adjustments, and prosthetic supplies in association with the Barr Foundation, SPS, and the Houston, Texas, Police Department (HPD). "It has been heartwarming to see how our community rallied in support," Smith commented. "Every place I contacted said they would help; people are giving up office space, some are offering [professional services]." Responses resulted from the request he posted on AMP-L and OANDP-L. Smith humbly said, "I really didn't do anything. People contacted me and offered to help." When one of his patients, an HPD member, repeatedly rescheduled his appointments, it occurred to Smith to ask him what the HPD's needs were. The result was a collaboration of efforts within the Astrodome and the surrounding O&P community. Faced with devastation and loss, many evacuees were least concerned about their prostheses. "At first we didn't see as many people as we thought we would," Smith explained. "[Survivors] are initially concerned with their family's safety and getting situated. They were just coming in to get crutches for the time being. They didn't have time to get new prostheses." He continued, "Now that things are settling down from [Hurricane] Rita, we are starting to see more people trickle in." At a rate of about four to eight a week, most of his new patients have lost or ruined a limb in the process of getting out of the flood. Smith recalled a man that had been wearing a two-year-old liner and an old, cracked leg he had found in the back of a car. One man, living with 28 members of his family in one house, doesn't have time to go see him. It is "the resiliency of these people" that most surprised Smith. "Most people are coming in and they're thankful that nobody died. Mementos are the things they think about. One man hopes to find his Little League picture from 25 years ago," he recounted. "The mood is really upbeat and somewhat philosophical," he added. As Rita threatened Houston, another practitioner, John Gibson, LP, CPO, became an evacuee, boarded up his home, and drove out of the city. He experienced "unbelievable stress" and a sobering anxiety that his house may not be there when he returned. Though his home was spared, his patients, some who lost everything after Katrina, comforted him. "One man told me, 'Not many people are given a second chance at life. I've got nothing to hold me back now,'" he recalled, adding, "It's been an eye-opening experience for me. It's made me re-evaluate what's important in my own life; family, friends, and my fellow man." <i>*Name has been changed to accommodate practitioner's request to remain an anonymous provider.</i> <h4>Young Spearheads Recovery Operation</h4> <table class="clsTableCaption" style="float: right; width: 23.047%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><img src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2005-12_01/fea1-5.jpg" alt="Mark Young, MD" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;">Mark Young, MD</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Mark A. Young, MD, MBA, FACP, chair of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM), Exchange Committee, in collaboration with Mathew Lee, MD, medical director of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York, New York, organized "Operation Functional Recovery." As part of the Katrina Rehabilitation Humanitarian Project, "a nationwide effort to establish rehabilitation teams to meet the emerging disabilities and functional deficits that will surface post-Katrina," they have assembled an interdisciplinary team of more than 500 volunteers, including orthotists and prosthetists, from around the country and internationally. "We're trying to unite the entire rehabilitation community with a common good--to address the functional needs of Katrina survivors," Young commented. Those needs may include "limb amputation, pain management, traumatic injuries, and anoxic injuries. "There are a large number of evacuees with pre-existing conditions, such as peripheral vascular disease and diabetes, as well as de novo wound infections that have developed due to [the flood] conditions," Young explained. "Due to poor sanitary conditions and lack of public utilities, severe medical conditions, such as vibrio cholera and acute diarrhea are seen. Our number-one goal is to meet medical needs, limb salvage prevention, compassionate skin management and [to ensure] those with preexisting amputations continue with rehabilitation." <i>For more information or to volunteer, contact:</i><a href="mailto:katrinarehab@gmail.com">katrinarehab@gmail.com</a> <h4>Helpful DMERC Information</h4> Those who are currently seeing Katrina-affected patients, or those who have facilities in the affected regions, will benefit from the following information: After the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association (AOPA) requested that Medicare temporarily suspend auditing of facilities in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, Region C agreed to cease auditing, and expedite and release money from existing claims. AOPA stated, "Our request [was] aimed at ensuring that O&P practitioners in the affected region will have an adequate funding stream to repair and/or rebuild their patient care facilities." Durable Medical Equipment Regional Carriers (DMERC) staff will provide "special handling of disaster claims when they are submitted as paper claims (no electronic claims will be treated as "disaster claims") and when "DISASTER CLAIM" is written in the upper right-hand corner. Situations that may qualify are: 1) Your patient records have been destroyed. 2) You are treating a patient from an area affected by Hurricane Katrina and neither you nor the patient has appropriate documentation (for example, earlier patient notes, prescriptions, etc.) 3) Your patient has lost his/her device as a result of the hurricane and you are simply replacing it," posted AOPA. Though the O&P community can be a competitive environment at times, many have united their efforts; together offering aid in Katrina's aftermath. "It has been heartwarming to see how our community rallied in support," Smith concluded. <i>Sherry Metzger, MS, is a freelance writer with degrees in anatomy and neurobiology. She is based in Westminster, Colorado, and may be reached at metzgerfive@hotmail.com</i>