Haiti

Loss of Life, Limb, and Capability  The earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th, 2010 was by some measures the most significant natural disaster in history.  Causing more than twice the deaths of the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, the financial cost of the earthquake exceeded 100% of the gross national product of the nation. With people trapped under buildings for days, thousands of reports on the loss of limbs began flooding in. Haiti needed help!

Prosthetika built a self-contained prosthetic workshop incorporated into two 20 foot steel shipping containers. It contains all the necessary power equipment, tools, workstations, and facilities for manufacturing prosthetic and orthotic devices. The workshop facilitates fabrication of artificial limbs and orthopedic braces, as well as serve as a training facility for training local Haitian technicians.

On location in Haiti, the container-based workshop arrived in September. Immediately ProsthetiKa sent a team of prosthetists, a physical therapist, and a building contractor to get all of the equipment up and running and to begin fitting patients with prostheses. It is nos staffed by teams of prosthetists traveling from the US on a rotating basis with one Haitian prosthetist on staff.  ProsthetiKa is currently recruiting Haitian prosthetists and trainees.

Activities
Activities included direct services in fitting amputees working side by side with local technician trainees. Physical therapists provided exercise therapy and gait training to the patients.

The Goal was to create a Haitian run and Haitian staffed prosthetics and orthotics service complete with an educational program for training new Haitian prosthetists.