Barr Foundation Completes 2nd Amputee Assistance Effort in Honduras / Kicks Off TracerCAD Joint Venture Pilot Program

Barr Foundation Completes 2nd Amputee Assistance Effort in Honduras / Kicks Off TracerCAD Joint Venture Pilot Program

Anthony T. Barr

3/7/2002

> The Barr Foundation completed their second of a ongoing series of amputee
> assistance effort, in Honduras on March 1, 2002.

> Honduran government officials, Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa, Comite
> Pro -Ayada, San Felipe Hospital dignitaries, local news media and the
> Associated Press were on hand to witness the results of providing
successful
> rehabilitation to another 12 amputees at a well attended reception at San
> Felipe Hospital in the capital city of Honduras,Tegucigalpa.
>
> 14 amputees from Honduras whom are
> new candidates selected for prosthetic rehabilitation via the Barr
> Foundation TracerCAD joint venture and pilot program.
>
> The Barr Foundation , USA based non profit organization, has provided
> successful prosthetic rehabilitation to 30 amputees in this region and to
> nearly 600 amputees world-wide since 1996.
>
> This pilot program consisted of 14 amputees ages 17 to 89 years of age.
> Twelve (12) of whom are A/Ks two (2) B/Ks , most of whom lost their limbs
> as result of land mines located on the Honduran border.There is an
estimated
> 200,000 landmines still active and located within the region.
>
> The amputees were traced and scanned March 1, 2002 utilizing a donated
> TracerCAD computer system operated by TracerCAD veteran, Jan Saunders LPO,
> of ABC Prosthetics and Orthotics in Orlando Florida.
>
> Eddy Fuentes CPO of Shriners Childrens Hospital in St.Louis, and the Barr
> Foundation's Central and South American Project Coordinator and Julio
> Fuentes prosthetist from Guatemala, also took turns tracing patients under
> Jan Saunder's guidance.
>
> Jan Saunders will be fabricating the sockets at his central fab facility
in
> Orlando, Orthotics & Prosthetics Fabrication,Inc. at no cost to the pilot
> program.

> This advance computer technology, developed by Greg Pratt of TracerCAD in
> Boca Raton, Fla. where The Foundation organization is also based, allows
to save time
> and substantially lower the cost of prosthetic rehabilitation.
>
> It took approximately 12-15 minutes to scan each of the patients for
> measurements required for fabricating the sockets.
> Every TracerCAD system is capable of sending patient shapes to a central
> fabrication facility anywhere in the world to a carver which
automatically
> forms the sockets while in-house production staff do other tasks.
>
> Once the sockets are completed, they will be shipped to Honduras, test
> fitted and modified to comfortably fit the patients and donated components
> assembled to them. The Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Comite
> Pro-Ayuda, also participates in our ongoing efforts by paying for the
> shipping ,overseeing delivery of the shipments and shares in the labor
cost
> to the San Felipe O&P Clinic.
>
> Proper application of this technology could conceivably provide advanced
> prosthetic rehabilitation to hundreds of amputees anywhere in the world.
> TracerCAD technology, electronically sent measurements, of tracing shapes
> and exporting via e-mail to a central fabrication facility thus completing
> the rehabilitation process in matter of a week!!
>
> The projected time frame to complete this pilot program and complete
> prosthetic rehabilitation ,will be 4 weeks since additional components
will
> be required to be solicited from the Barr Foundation Hope Donor Club
Members
> (see www.oandp.com/barr ) and shipped to the clinic in Tegucigalpa
> ,Honduras.
>
> Anthony T. Barr
> President
> Barr Foundation
> www.oandp.com/barr
> 561-394-6514
>
>
>
> <<patient pictures.ppt>>
>
>