The only place in Haiti that makes artificial limbs and teaches people how to use them was destroyed in the earthquake, a loss that symbolizes the hard road ahead for this impoverished nation's countless new amputees.
Healing Hands for Haiti, a nonprofit with a rambling headquarters in the capital's Delmas neighborhood, has treated more than 25,000 people over 10 years. Now, as experts estimate that as many as 40,000 people underwent amputations in the quake's aftermath, the group's facilities are in a shambles. "We have to start over," says executive director Eric Doubt.
Even before the quake, Haiti's underfunded health-care system lacked resources for people who lost limbs in car accidents or to infections. The situation was complicated by a government that offered little support for the disabled, and a culture in which some people regarded the disabled bad luck because of the economic burden they represented.
Healing Hands is among many organizations and private doctors that are attempting to create, virtually from scratch, a system to treat amputees, who need urgent care now and maintenance for decades. The immediate need is for crutches and exercise therapy that will keep remaining muscles functioning. Artificial limbs, once fitted, need to be changed every three to five years, and every six months for growing children.
"Prosthetics are not a one-time thing," says Rob Sheridan, a surgeon from Massachusetts General who performed amputations on many earthquake victims at a hospital in rural Cange, 35 miles from Port-au-Prince, run by Boston-based nonprofit Partners in Health.
Dr. Sheridan, who also is chief of burn surgery at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston, is one of many doctors who performed life-saving operations and now plan to help rehabilitate patients. "We are trying to put together a program that would last a generation," he said.
The United Nations has put together a "sub cluster" to help disabled in the wake of Haiti's earthquake. The group, headed by Handicap International, had its first meeting in late January in Port-au-Prince, with representatives from the Haitian government as well as Healing Hands, Doctors Without Borders, Christian Blind Mission International and others.
The group will start producing temporary "emergency" prostheses in mid-February with salvaged equipment from Healing Hands in a tent compound near the Port-au-Prince airport. Components are to be shipped this weekend from France to supply 50 temporary artificial legs to patients whose stumps will soon be healed enough to be fitted, which takes between 4 weeks to several months. Components for 250 more prostheses are to arrive in the next month. These temporary limbs allow patients to regain mobility and generally they receive a customized limb in four to six months.
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