From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-Riding shotgun in the front seat of the Land Rover was probably, in retrospect, not a good idea, as it gave me a much too up-close-and-personal view of the perilous terrain several hundred feet above Deschapelles in a remote area of Haiti some three hours to the northeast of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The steep, serpentine roads were rocky and narrow, and, as we discovered to our horror, two-way!
In the cabin behind me was a team of medical personnel -- a physician, two nurses, a prosthetist and two physical therapists visiting from Michigan. They had invited me to accompany them on what was for them a routine round of house calls to patients of Hopital Albert Schweitzer Haiti who were unable to make the long trek down to the hospital in the Artibonite Valley below.
At one home, a man in his 30s was suffering from a rare bone disorder, making it necessary for him to both wear a prosthesis and walk on crutches, at least temporarily. His prosthesis was examined, and it was determined that it had become misshapen as the foot became stronger and had to be replaced. The prosthetist took measurements and promised that the device would be replaced and delivered to the young man within two weeks, either by another team or by a social worker assigned to the region who made his rounds on a bicycle.
Read more:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/the-work-goes-on-in-haiti-698908/#ixzz2bel2i9DC
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