Massachusetts group sends prosthetics to Haitian amputees

From The Republican in Springfield, Mass.:

Having arrived in Haiti just three hours before the massive earthquake hit, Janice M. Davis spent weeks doing what she could to help people.

Now safe at home in Hatfield, Davis is working to find ways to help the thousands of people who lost limbs.

The chief organizer of Mustard Seed, which brings traveling medical clinics with volunteer doctors to villages, Davis said she had flown into Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12 and was heading 90 miles to Les Cayes, located in the southern part of the island, when the earthquake hit.

"We were in the car and we didn't feel it," she said. "When we got to the house everyone was out in the street and there was a lot of commotion."

Davis, who retired recently to spend more time working in Haiti, had planned to do administrative and organizational work for the nonprofit agency she and her husband developed in 2006. Instead she found herself in the middle of chaos.

While the damage in Les Cayes was a lot less than in other areas, the injured started arriving in the town searching for medical care.

"We ended up with a lot of refugees," she said. "It was really apparent there were a lot of amputees."

One of her biggest concerns was people who lost arms and legs wouldn't get the physical therapy and care they needed to prepare to wear a prosthetic limb or wouldn't get the prosthetics they needed in Les Cayes, especially because there is more focus on the capital city.

Working with physical therapist Robert R. Myers, who is self-employed working at Advanced Therapeutics in Northampton, the organization is trying to prepare for the next step of providing rehabilitation and prosthetics to amputees.

Mustard Seed already received a commitment from Orthotics & Prosthetics Laboratories, Inc. of Springfield, which donated about $100,000 worth of different devices needed by amputees. Some of the prosthetics are new items donated by the laboratory and others were used items donated by patients, said Christen Campanini, the marketing manager.