 |
Healing Hands for Haiti Foundation
By Al Ingersoll, CP Some of you may have followed a group of Minnesota
professionals during a recent clinical trip to Haiti via The EDGE Online Journal. We were able
to spend a week at the Healing Hands for Haiti Foundations' clinic
in Port-au-Prince. While the political tension of the time kept us
from clinic one day, it didn't stop our ability to educate the
Haitian technicians studying orthotics and prosthetics as well as
to treat many patients. Thanks, in part, to generous ongoing
support from Otto Bock and the Barr Foundation, we expect continued
success.
The website detailed our daily activities, so I wanted to take
this opportunity to give you an overview of Healing Hands for Haiti
Foundation (HHHF). (Editor's note: To read each day's journal
entries and view photos, please visit the Healing Hands for Haiti Online Journal.) I
would also like to extend an invitation for you to help the
organization. If you are interested in what HHHF is doing and would
like to join one of our teams, please call me directly at
763.546.1177 or contact via email at aingersoll@winkley.com.
Joining a Healing Hands for Haiti team is a great way to gain
exposure in your community, broaden your horizons, give to those
less fortunate, educate young Haitian rehab technicians, and work
closely with other medical professionals. The Minnesota team has
members from 11 different hospitals or rehab facilities. We were
featured on a local evening news channel and interviewed by a radio
show. Presentations about our trip have been given at schools,
churches, Rotary meetings, and hospitals. An abstract has been
submitted for us to give a presentation at the 2004 National
Assembly of the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association
(AOPA) meeting.
 |
Tom Bremer, CP, and two Haitian technicians work with Patrick and his new bilateral transfemoral prostheses. |
|
A typical HHH team might consist of physicians,
nurses, occupational and physical therapists, orthotists,
prosthetists, technicians, wheelchair technicians, speech
therapists, and support staff. Accompanying spouses can help too;
often they will provide support by working clinic triage check-in,
orphanage assistance, administration/computer help, etc. Check the
Healing Hands for Haiti website to see when teams are scheduled to
travel ( www.healingshandsforhaiti.org). I would suggest
joining an existing team for your first trip, and then consider
forming a new team.
Why Haiti?
Haiti is only 500 miles from Florida but is the poorest country
in the Western Hemisphere, suffering under many brutal leaders for
the last 200 years. Government aid to Haiti is virtually
nonexistent; the country's natural resources have been plundered;
and disease, malnutrition, and limited access to medical facilities
contribute to staggering levels of disability.
The country is very mountainous, having the highest mountains in
the Caribbean and more than Switzerland. Port-Au-Prince, the
capital, with about two million people, is a very busy city,
teeming with activity and traffic. Our clinic and guesthouse are in
a suburb of Port-Au-Prince.
Haitians are known to be extremely kind, patient, and generous.
Haiti has more artists per capita than any other country in the
world. We brought back several thousand dollars worth of art and
plan on selling this for a fundraiser.
Our Vision
Our vision is to provide treatment, physical and occupational
rehabilitation, and education to the people of Haiti. Our goals
include heightening the public awareness of physical disability
issues (including prevention, acceptance, and care); educating the
people of Haiti to care for the disabled with skill, dignity, and
respect; and providing continued support with training, materials,
supplies, medical treatment, and therapy. Healing Hands for Haiti
encourages our patients to pay for services if they are able;
however, no individual will be turned away for lack of funds.
Help Needed
 O&P practitioners and technicians are needed
to join existing teams scheduled to travel to Haiti this year and
next. A medical clinic, O&P lab, therapy gym, and educational
classrooms are being constructed at our new property and will be
completed in the summer of 2004. When these facilities are
finished, we will have the capability to diagnose, treat,
fabricate, and teach at one location, which is on the same property
as the guesthouse for volunteers. Two meals a day are cooked by an
onsite kitchen staff, and the four-acre site, shaded by palm trees,
includes a large swimming pool. Security is maintained day and
night.
Healing Hands for Haiti has an educational program that is
teaching Haitians nursing, orthotics, prosthetics, and occupational
and physical therapy rehabilitation. These technologists will be
able to treat their fellow disabled Haitians, thus helping to
relieve an overburdened medical system. Professionals traveling
from Canada and the United States have the opportunity to help
teach these eager students. After the training and clinical are
completed these technicians train in Canada or the US for six
months.
Orthotics and Prosthetics in Haiti
The population of Haiti is estimated at eight million, with
approximately 10 percent being disabled. These people have many
adversities facing them, including difficulties obtaining medical
care, lack of money to pay for care or to obtain medical devices,
and geographic barriers.
 |
Sarah Gutknecht, RN, CPNP, assists a young boy at an orphanage. |
|
The most common cause of amputation is infection,
followed by motor-vehicle accidents. Other causes are birth
defects, falls, work-related accidents, and gunshots. Above-knee
amputees outnumber below-knee by an estimate of ten to one. Many of
the transfemoral amputations are relatively short, with heavy
scarring and adhesions. Because of the lack of access to medical
care, infections are not treated soon enough, leading to the
high-level amputations.
The population needing orthotic intervention is also varied.
Many disabled children have developmental delays, suffer from
malnutrition, and have genu varum, valgum, or recurvatum; adults
were treated for stroke, spinal cord injury, motor-vehicle trauma,
and overuse syndromes.
We have been very fortunate to equip our lab with a donated
pizza and baker's oven, drum- and Trautman-style sanders, a
vacuum-forming station, air compressor, and most necessary hand
tools. If possible, most devices are custom- made and assembled
onsite. Occasionally, more complex fittings require fabrication in
the US or Canada. Team Minnesota brought a hip disarticulation test
socket back, and Otto Bock Technical Services donated fabrication
and a locking hip joint. A team from Utah will take this prosthesis
back to be fit. Thermoformed plastic is used for fabrication of
most devices. Locking knees or friction polycentric knees are
preferred because of the rugged mountainous terrain, ease of
maintenance, and relatively low weight. Silesian belts provide a
safe, easily repairable means of suspension. Flexible keel feet
seem to work best for the above reasons.
Costs and Travel
The costs for traveling to Haiti vary depending on airfare, team
size, length of stay, and money spent in country. The 17-member
2004 Minnesota team traveled from Minne-apolis to Miami, Florida,
on Friday, stayed overnight in Miami, and then flew direct from
Miami to Port-Au-Prince on Saturday. We had intended to stay ten
days; however, because of the political unrest against President
Aristide, we came home two days early. Our airfare was $550, with
the hotel in Miami for one night adding $70. The Healing Hands
Foundation charges room and board to each team member staying at
the guesthouse. This was $46 per day and is one of the ways the
Foundation supports itself. Because of the very high cost of fuel
in Haiti, we were charged $160 per person for the week. This
included our pick-up and return to the airport, a day of
sightseeing and shopping, an evening dinner at a very nice hotel,
and two different teams to orphanages each day. We were the last
team using the old rented clinic property, so we had to be
transported there each day. Team members bring $200 - $500 for
shopping, sightseeing, dinners, and other miscellaneous expenses.
Team Minnesota raised funds to offset the room, board, and
transportation costs. Most teams travel on American Airlines with
Air Canada, Air France, and Dutch Caribbean also being options.
We try to carry as many supplies as we can with us, and we are
working on obtaining goods locally. Shipping supplies to Haiti is
very difficult because Haitian Customs is notoriously corrupt. Team
members will carry on personal items and use luggage for rehab
supplies. We have found plastic storage totes and large duffle bags
to work well. 
Table Of Contents - June 2004
|
|
