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Bringing Help and Hope to Guatemala Guatemala, a country of great natural beauty, is
the Mayan heartland of Central America, with impressive ruins of
the ancient Mayan civilization at Tikal and elsewhere. The Mayan
culture still lives on, seen in customs, language, and the blazing
colors of everyday Mayan dress. About 44 percent of the population
is of Mayan descent.
Guatemala also has suffered from 36 years of civil war, which
only ended in 1996. About 75 percent of the population lives in
poverty. For over a decade, Children of the Americas (COTA), based
in Lexington, Kentucky, has been sending medical teams to the
country's rural areas. In 2003, orthotists and prosthetists were
added to the teams.
Lance Hoag, CO, director of orthotics at Shriners Hospital in
Lexington, and Wayne Cottle, CP, BOCP, RTP, senior prosthetist at
the hospital, volunteered their skills. Both are employed by the
Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care, based in Louisville,
Kentucky, which staffs and operates the O&P department at
Shriners.
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Lance Hoag fits child with therapeutic shoes. |
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"Although Shriners takes care of patients till
they reach age 21, the children cant get visas to return to the
United States after they are 18," Cottle explained, as quoted by
PrimeCare O&P network, headquartered in Cordova, Tennessee. The
Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care is a member of
PrimeCare.
Chance To Volunteer
"Shriners still makes their prostheses, but there's no way to
deliver them to the patients and fit them properly," Cottle said.
"COTA offered me the opportunity to accompany their medical team as
a volunteer, and I couldnt pass it up."
In January 2004, Keith Senn, partner and CFO of the Center for
Orthotic & Prosthetic Care, accompanied the team to Guatemala
with his wife Susan as additional volunteers. "It was an incredible
experience," said Senn. "I really appreciate how competent COTA's
representatives are. Both Jody Greenlee, RN [COTA coordinator] and
Rosemary Vance [COTA executive director] did a spectacular job and
never got tired, never showed signs of stress."
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Wayne Cottle assesses child for upper prostheses. |
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A systems engineer also accompanied the team to
handle any mechanical problems with electricity, plumbing, and
general maintenance. His presence was vital, Senn said. "The
equipment we brought kept blowing fuses. There wasn't enough
electricity running through the surgery center, but our engineer
was able to reroute extra power, and that was very helpful."
As volunteers, Senn and his wife were always busy: She assisted
in surgery while Senn did "a little bit of everything necessary,"
including trips into the city of San Juan to pick up basic supplies
and prescriptions, as well as helping with crowd control. "Doctors
would see patients from 8 AM to 8 PM, and at the end of such long
days, we were all exhausted," Senn said.
Additional trips were made in 2004, including one in October,
during which Cottle fabricated and delivered prostheses to 14
amputee patients. Donors included Ohio Willow Wood, Mt. Sterling,
Ohio; and Fillauer Inc., Chattanooga, Tennessee, among others. Ohio
Willow Wood donated SACH and single-axis feet and Fillauer donated
plane fares and componentry. Cottle also took measurements and
casts for 14 more patients; the prostheses were delivered and
fitted in January.
Major Causes of Disability
What challenges does the medical team face in Guatemala?
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Jody Greenlee (left) and Rosemary Vance of COTA. |
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"There's such a dichotomy in Guatemala," said
Greenlee, as quoted by PrimeCare. Greenlee added, "You'll be in the
middle of a very modern city with high-rise buildings, and an hour
later you can be in a place like San Juan, where you see nothing
but people in indigenous dress, carrying baskets of fruit on their
heads, and with no running water and electricity.
"The problem in Guatemala is that only about 25-30 percent of
the people have electricity," Greenlee continued. "So if their
neighbors have it, they will try to hotwire the electricity from
their neighbor's home to hook up to their house. There are an awful
lot of live wires laying around. We saw two specific cases that are
still haunting me - because these children were fresh traumatic
amputations. One child lost his leg, and one little girl lost both
of her arms at the elbow; both had touched live wires. The little
girl had touched them in November and blew off both of her
arms.
"Also, many people still cook over open fires, and the toddlers
or older children will fall into the fire. Since very few people
have hot water heaters, the parents will boil hot water for baths,
and before they can get it mixed, the children will fall in. The
result is surgical amputations of feet and hands from excessive
burns that don't heal. So we have a fair amount of O&P cases
there."
Greenlee also notes that there are a great number of club feet
and amniotic banding cases in Guatemala. "Next to the cleft palate
cases, that's the most predominant birth defect that we see
there."
Returning Healthy Children
COTA is one of only two organizations in Guatemala that is
allowed to get medical visas for children and bring them to the
United States for medical care and foster home accommodations
during their stay, since COTA is also licensed in Kentucky to
provide foster care as a child placement agency.
"We feel very privileged to have that sense of trust with the
embassy," Greenlee noted. "They know that we will do the best for
the children while they are here, and that we will always return
them back home, which is important. I think it's one of the
greatest gifts that our program offers - to take the emotional and
financial heartache of a disabled child away from the family whose
resources are so strapped already and give them back a healthy
child. This allows them to use their resources to benefit everyone
instead of just concentrating on trying to keep one child alive -
it's a huge gift to everybody."
For more information, visit www.childrenoftheamericas.com or e-mail Jody
Greenlee: green71957@aol.com 
Table Of Contents - February 2005
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