Hugs that will melt your heart

The following is an update from Jay Tew as told to a member of the Hanger team over the phone:

We’ve gotten the Hanger clinic up and running like an office; everything is flowing and working nicely. We also have a clinic in the mountains in Cange that is also flowing nicely. We travel to Port-au-Prince every Wednesday to see amputees at New Life Children’s Orphanage and we’ve seen some real special guys and girls from there. One girl in particular lost her family and had her leg amputated below-the-knee. When we first met her she was a shell of a little girl just sitting on a couch and not responding or speaking to us or anything. We took her back to the Hanger clinic in Deschapelles and got her fit with a new prosthetic leg and up and walking. Now, she hugs on to me and won’t leg go and hugs everyone! She is playing with the other little kids now too. We just brought her back home after spending a couple of weeks with us at the Hanger clinic and now she is a star at the orphanage!

We met another little boy at the orphanage who is hilarious! We were trying to explain to a little girl what her new leg would look like. We tried to explain that it wouldn’t be covered during the fitting process, but upon delivery of her final leg, she would have a cover on it. She was concerned and said she didn’t want a “pipe” leg. The little boy, who had his leg amputated at the hip overheard this conversation and in his native French Creole language said “I do, I do! I’ll take it!” He just wanted a leg so he could get back to being a little boy. We made him a prosthesis complete with a cover and he immediately started walking on his own; he’s a happy, playful kid again!