The outbreak has also affected the inflow of patients from Port-au-Prince to the Klinik Hanger. Since the outbreak was in our area, we didn’t want to unnecessarily expose amputees and possibly spread the disease to new areas. We are utilizing this time to provide additional clinical prosthetic training for our Haitian technicians. I am fortunate to have Paul Armstrong, lower extremity clinical instructor from the Newington Certificate Program in Orthotics & Prosthetics here this rotation. We have been able to cover basic anatomy, socket design, patient evaluations, casting and cast modification. Later this week, as we have time, we will continue with socket fitting and troubleshooting. It has been exciting to see the technicians’ enthusiasm as they absorb all of this information. They have been learning all along from observing the many practitioners that have worked with them, but they seem eager and ready to learn the theory and apply it for themselves. It’s great to see how much they have learned over a short eight month time span.
We hear from the hospital that new admits with cholera have slowed down and we are hopeful that the worst is over, but it is too early to know for sure. At Klinik Hanger we are taking an unfortunate experience with the cholera outbreak and turning it into a great learning opportunity for the technicians.
