Helping Haiti Care for the Newly Disabled

posted on Apr 02 by in the Advocacy, Disability Law, Disability News, Health, Wheelchair Accessibility category
Frank Shirley works in the "brace shop" at Milton Hospital, which makes prosthetic limbs and orthotic braces for people with amputations and other injuries.

Frank Shirley works in the "brace shop" at Milton Hospital, which makes prosthetic limbs and orthotic braces for people with amputations and other injuries.

On January 12, 2010, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti which left most of the island and in its people’s lives in ruins. A little over two months later there is still much to be done to aid the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Many people there now have disabilities as a result of injuries from the earthquake and need assistance with these disabilities and learning to live life with them. That is where Frank Shirley and the organization he started, Healing Hands for Haiti, come in to play.

For several years, and prior to the earthquake, Shirley has been traveling with the local Boston chapter of Healing Hands for Haiti for a week at a time helping Haitians with missing limbs and other disabilities. Shirley makes orthotic braces and prosthetic limbs for people with amputations and other injuries at his “brace shop” at Milton Hospital.

On Saturday, Shirley and 17 others from his local chapter will fly to Haiti, using their own money, to make free prosthetics and orthotics for anyone who needs them. They’ll also do free rehabilitation therapy.

“A lot of the crush injuries — they’ll have limbs that don’t function well,” Shirley explains. “They’ll have a drop foot, which is a generic term for the ankle not being able to rise up. They’ll have weakness in the whole left side or upper extremity.” Before the earthquake, there was great need in Haiti to assist those with disabilities and the earthquake has only added to that number says Shirley. The clinic where the volunteers formerly worked was destroyed during the earthquake so now they will be working out of an 18 by 50 tent.

The goal of Healing Hands for Haiti is to help the people with disabilities to live a full and functional life as much as possible. They also intend to train local Haitian medical personal to teach people these methods so that the Haitians may continue the work once Healing Hands have left.

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