FWD:Greetings from A Leg To Stand On in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India!

[Guest guest]

Thought this would be of interest to some of you... Joanne W. mom to Zoe

(3-24-01) Fairfax VA

Greetings from A Leg To Stand On in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India!

We are half way through a week of treatment, training, and therapy for

children with limb disabilities and Club Foot, and thought we’d send you a

mid-week report to give you an idea of how your generosity is helping so

many children.

Day 1: Our Monday began with a day-long Club Foot Workshop for local

Orthopedists and Physical Therapists. Dr. Harold van Bosse, Dr. Shafique

Pirani, and Physical Therapist Michiel Steenbeek led 50 participants through

the Ponseti Method of Club Foot correction, followed by series of live

workshop with infants. The Ponseti Method emphasizes early treatment with a

series of five cost-effective casts that last for a week each. When the

Ponseti method of casting is applied in the first year of life and when

post-treatment bracing is rigorously followed, success rates reach an

impressive 95%-100%. Awareness of this treatment is critical to effective

care because early treatment achieves much better results.

We had so many children in the workshop that Mead even assisted one of the

doctors in a Tenotomy, a release of the tendon that allows for flexibility

in the Achilles tendon.

While the lectures took place, Claire Mackay (Executive Director), Mead

Welles (Founder) and Cathy Carroll (Board Member) met parents with children

suffering from Club Foot. This year, we brought a Polaroid camera and

handed out photographs of the children to their families. Most of these

families are from rural villages and have never seen photos of themselves,

so as you can imagine, they were a huge hit! We gave out 80 pictures in

about 30 minutes.

This year, we are joined by representatives from Arimed, a leading provider

of Orthotics and Prosthetics (O&P) in New York City. Tim , a Certified

Prosthetist and COO of Arimed, and , a Certified Orthotist,

are here to observe and share O&P strategies with Orthotists and

Prosthetists from Ahmedabad.

We also have an Epidemiologist, Dr. Hoven, and her husband Dr.

Mendel with us. Dr. Hoven is on a plenary mission to design

epidemiological studies measuring the performance of medical treatments for

limb disabilities and deformities.

Day 2: We got an early start Tuesday so that we could visit a school for

disabled boys. Located in a rural area outside Ahmedabad, the school houses

a few hundred boys from nine to twenty years old, all with some form of

congenital, disease, or trauma induced handicap. We were particularly moved

by a fifteen year old, Paresh, who was born without limbs below the knees

and elbows. Despite this challenge, Paresh is able to write, eat, brush his

teeth, and even play cricket at the same speed as his friends who have arms

and legs.

These children are the ideal candidates for ALTSO’s corrective surgeries and

prosthetic limbs. In fact, and Tim will be casting several

children, then making prosthetic limbs with Mr. Dihren Joshi in New York

City in March. Mr. Joshi, Chief Engineer at Parapeligia Hospital will bring

these limbs home with him when he returns at the end of March.

Midday, we held a press conference in the late morning back at Parapeligia

Hospital. In fact, this morning we found pictures and an article written

about A Leg To Stand On in the local Gujarat newspaper, and after today’s

press conference, we expect to appear in the evening news and again in

tomorrow’s papers.

In the afternoon, we met the Mayor of Ahmedabad, Arishabegum Mirza, an

impressive woman who is pleased to support the Club Foot project at VS

Hospital. This city hospital has 1100 beds yet has 2200 patients at any one

time. We toured the hospital with Dr. Pankaj Patel, Chief Orthopedic

Surgeon & Professor of the hospital, and Board Member of ALTSOA – A Leg To

Stand On Ahmedabad. Simultaneously, Dr. van Bosse and Dr. Pirani led a

medical workshop for 20 residents at the hospital.

I hope this gives you an image of how your generosity is helping so many

disabled children here in India. We’ll let you know how the rest of the

trip goes once we’re back in the US.

With enthusiasm and gratitude,

A Leg To Stand On

_________________________________________________________________

Get business advice and resources to improve your work life, from bCentral.

http://special.msn.com/bcentral/loudclear.armx