Day 5: A great finishThursday 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. 

Table Of Contents - February 2004
|