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Healing Hands for Haiti Minnesota Team
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Posing for their photo are the 2003 Minnesota Healing Hands team, along with the clinic staff and administration. |
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A 17-person medical team from Healing Hands for
Haiti will leave for Haiti Friday, February 6, and will return on
Monday, February 16. The humanitarian team includes a physiatrist,
nurse practitioner, a prosthetist, orthotist, O&P technician,
five physical therapists, three occupational therapists, three
support staff, and a translator.
Viewers can "travel" with the team as they provide vital
assistance to disabled persons in this poorest country in the
Western Hemisphere.
The physician and nurse practitioner, along with Haitian
physicians and nurses, will evaluate patients and then send them to
the appropriate team member for treatment. The orthotist,
prosthetist, and technician will evaluate, fabricate, fit, and
repair as many devices as possible while teaching the Haitian
technical staff," said Al Ingersoll, CP. "The therapists will treat
patients, teach students, and help the O&P staff." Some team
members also will visit orphanages each day.
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Dominique (above left), a technician in training, examines a child with bilateral congenital partial foot absence as Al Ingersoll, CP, holds her. |
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Haiti is a country where 50 percent of the adult
population is unemployed and 65 percent cannot read or write. The
majority of people cannot get safe drinking water, medical care, or
sufficient food for their families. "The overwhelming need for
caregivers is matched only by the continually growing need for
materials and tools used to construct appropriate prosthetics and
orthotics for upper- and lower-extremity amputations and
musculoskeletal deformities and weakness," the organization points
out.
Helping Haitians to help themselves is a prime goal of the
organization. "Through providing these services, we hope to
ultimately see independent and well-trained Haitian personnel who
specialize in rehabilitative medicine," the organization says.
Another vision is the establishment of a permanent rehabilitation
hospital in Haiti.
Healing Hands for Haiti is a nonprofit, nonpolitical,
nongovernmental, and nondenominational 501 (c) 3 organization. For
more information, visit www.healinghandsforhaiti.org.
Bremer, Barr Aid Haitians
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The students are (from left) Edyline, Clifford, and Flavianne. Bremer (second from right) said, ”The students are great to work with. We worked very hard but still had fun and became friends.” |
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Several teams have volunteered for Healing Hands
for Haiti. Tom Bremer, CP, Bremer Prosthetic Design, Flint,
Michigan, traveled to Haiti in late November 2003 with ten boxes of
supplies from the Barr Foundations Hope Donors Members. Bremer cast
seven patients. Three were bilateral amputees, including a boy, age
nine, with bilateral AK amputations. Bremer, along with Barr
Foundation President Tony Barr, returned to Haiti in late January
to fit the patients with their new prostheses.
Bremer also provided for a Haitian student to stay at his home
and train in his facility from mid-May to mid-August, 2003, before
returning to Port-au-Prince, Haitis capital. Clifford Cadet, 25,
speaks three languages: English, French, and Creole. Cadets warm
personality and enthusiasm won the hearts of Bremers family and the
clinic staff. He will be a real asset to Healing Hands for Haiti,
Bremer said. 
Table Of Contents - February 2004
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