The video above shows a young girl, Huang Meihua, who lost her legs in the massive Sichuan earthquake of 2008, trying to stand on prosthetics provided by her Chinese hospital. As you can see, this doesn't go well. To this day, Meihua is still in a wheelchair. HandReach has served dozens of children who need prosthetics, but to date we've had to bring them to Shriners in the US.
In China and most of the developing world, kids who need prosthetics have to get them at factories, where the costs are prohibitive and little to no rehabilitation support is provided. HandReach is in position to develop China's first integrated prosthetics program based on HandReach's "Starfish Model," integrating surgery, nursing, orthopedics, rehabilitation, and psychosocial therapy -- thus serving as a training program for clinicians from all over China and the world.
Help us get the equipment, and Shriners will send world-class staff to work with the kids and train up-and-coming clinicians!
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