Phoenix Rising

I had the wonderful privilege the first week of April to work alongside & learn from an amazing group of therapist/prosthetic/orthopedic team (Phoenix Rising) made up of professionals from all over the United States. Phoenix Rising has been coming to Haiti & changing lives for years. They recently rented a space in Port-de-Paix (PdP) about an hour from the mission where they bring teams 2x a year for 2 weeks trips. Their sole purpose is to bring therapy, prosthetics, and orthopedics to as many people as possible in their short-time in Haiti. They see 75+ patients per day assessing, treating, and educating.

As you know in Haiti I fulfill many roles that I am not qualified to fill but with God’s help I do my best. Two of those areas are prosthetics (as I have fitted many of the children with AFO’s to the best of my knowledge) and Physical Therapy (I do a lot of treating that falls into the realms of PT). The Miriam Center was truly blessed to have Phoenix Rising come to the Mission on 2 different afternoons. 

While at the Miriam Center they were able to....

1. Their Prosthetic team was able to make Anel a new prosthetic leg. Read Anel's Story click Here

I was so glad that we were able to bless them in return by providing them with a need they had for 2 wheelchairs for patients they had seen in PdP. We were blessed with ~15 lawn chair wheelchairs from PAP this past fall. We have handed many out but have a few left. They had 2 amputee patients that really needed wheelchairs & these chairs were a great fit.'

This women was a double amputee. She lives in downtown from the mission. Her husband who is smaller than her was carrying her everywhere. Phoenix Rising Prosthetic team was able to make her 2 legs and teach her how to walk with them. They then were able to provide her with a wheelchair to help her husband with transportation as well. 

2. Their Orthotic Team was able check all the Miriam Home children’s braces, make sure they all fit appropriately & make any adjustments that needed to be made. They also fit a few of the kids for braces that I was unable to fit with braces secondary to my limited supply of AFO’s. even got Joshua shin guards to protect his shins while crawling around on the concrete. I was very thankful that they were able to see Rosemeldrine’s mother (one of my outreach families) who was in a car accident over a year ago which she broke her leg in multiple places. She continues to have severe pain that limits her ability to take care of her special needs daughter. We had her see the orthopedic surgeon in October who was unable to do the surgery she needs in Haiti. Her one leg is an inch and a half shorter than the other. She was so blessed that Phoenix Rising was able to make her a shoe with a lift in it that will hopefully help start relieving some of the pain. Below are just a few pictures of a couple of the children seen while they were at the mission...I didn't have time to take many pictures because I was busy facilitating each of the group members & making sure all of kids got seen that needed to.

Sydney got a foot AFO (click Here to read her story)

Nerlande got her AFO's checked to make sure they fit ok. To read her story click here

This little boy was brought to us not even a day old with concerns of a club foot. I have been casting him every other week to try to correct club foot and the orthotic team feels it worked & he does not need AFO's at this time :-)

Steven got his braces fixed as some of the strapping had broken from all his walking & practicing!

Kem got her AFO adjusted so that it would fit better. Her brace enables her to work on standing/weightbearing in the stander.

3. Their Physical Therapist (PT's) saw 8-10 of the Miriam Home and Outreach kids and gave me PT treatment ideas for a the harder PT cases that I was stumped on how to treat.  They were also able to see 2 NWHCM staff who have sustained injuries over the past year & continue to have pain/problems.

Rosekerra was seen by 2 of the PT's 2 different days to provide me with a PT treatment plan to help with her scoliosis. 

Wilkenson was seen by the orthotic team to check the fit of his AFO's then he was seen by the PT for some post-surgery strengthening exercise ideas for his legs. He had bilateral tendon releases in October. He is doing great and is now able to walk without holding onto anything!!!

Wasensky was seen by the Orthotist & fit for bilateral foot AFO's for stability to work on standing in the PVC walkers and then was seen by the pediatric  PT to give some treatment ideas. 

Nicholson (My Haitian therapy assistant), Presidue (Haitian director Miriam Center and Outreach Program), Johnson (My therapy student from PAP doing his fieldwork under me), and myself were able to travel down to PdP 4 different days (45-60min moto ride each way). We were able to observe, learn, & work alongside their team.  We were also able to facilitate many of the outreach children from PdP to get seen by the pediatric PT and get treatment ideas, AFO’s fitted, etc. I learned so much in that week & I believe Nicholson, Presidue, Johnson did as well.

Below are pictures & stories of a few of the FJS outreach children we were able to have Phoenix Rising see & help with. 

1. This little girl came all the way from Mole St. Nicholson with her day (6+ hours) to see Phoenix Rising. She has double club foot surgery back in October. They checked her foot braces and gave dad some therapy ideas to do at home to help continue with her strengthening. She will continue to check back in with us at the Miriam Center every few months. 

2. Isaac is a newer one of my outreach kiddos. He has a mild club foot that I had been casting every other week to prevent further deformity until Phoenix Rising could come & fit him for an AFO. His mother is so good with him & his twin brother. Phoenix Rising was able to provide him with AFO's for day & night to prevent further contractures until October when he will hopefully have club foot surgery to completely fix his foot so he can walk/run and keep up with his brother.

Mom with both boy riding on a Moto...couldn't help but take a picture of this...

3. Wadley is also a newer outreach that started coming a few months ago. He has super tight calves and has a hard time with transitional movement of sitting down on the floor, getting up off the floor, etc. His legs fatigue quickly & give out on him & he has alot of pain. I was not sure what he had or how to treat him as his affected area was his lower extremities. Sonya (the pediatric PT) and Gretchen (the Orthotist) both believe that he has Muscular Dystrophy which after looking it up  makes since. It was one of the hardest moments of the week having to explain to Wadley what was causing his pain/weakness and that it will progress & get worse and eventually that he would lose his ability to walk. Sonya did an incredible job explaining it gently and making sure Wadley understood & was ok. We were able to give him some daily exercises & encourage him to continue to play & be a normal boy but take breaks as he needed to. Wadley is such a sweet boy. Please keep him in your prayers. 

4. Mackanios has been coming to outreach for the past year. I wanted to get him checked out by the Pediatric PT and the orthotist to see if their was any bracing we could do to help him with standing/walking and also for any treatment ideas. Mackanios is a joyful, spirited boy who loves singing worship songs and saying "Halellujah!". Phoenix Rising was able to fit him with a foot AFO and gave me a PT treatment plan for him. We also discussed with mom about doing Constraint Induces therapy to encourage increased use of his affected hand.

5. Kenia has been coming to outreach for the past 5 years. She has gained & lost skills over the years. She had surgery on her legs in PAP before I met her. You can read her story by clicking here. Over the last year her contractures in her knees were getting worse even with night knee immobilizers I had provided her. It was getting more challenging for her to walk and she was having increased pain in her legs. Sonya was able to give her a daily exercise/stretching routine to do daily at home and then gave me some treatment ideas to do with her during outreach.

6. Casandra- has been coming to outreach for the past year. Her mom's testimony is incredible (you can read it by clicking Here). The pediatric PT was able to encourage mom, give her some ideas of how to work with Casandra at home and gave me some new treatment ideas to work with her on while at FJS outreach therapy.

I was blessed to be able to help Sonya the pediatric PT with a few of the children that she was seeing that had hand problems. Below are 2 of the children I was able to help her with. The first little girl is now apart of the outreach program. We got 3-4 new referrals for outreach from phoenix rising & I look forward to working alongside these new families, encouraging them, providing therapy for their children, educating them on how they can work with their children at home, and helping them build a support system with other families facing similar challenges.

Growing in my therapy skills is not always easy in Haiti. I do not have other therapist’s to observe & learn from on a daily basis. I don’t have time to take online courses or even read/study the books I have here in Haiti.  I am trying to set up a therapy clinic/program in a fifth world country that currently to my knowledge does not have a therapy system set up. Then add in the language barrier, the negative view of people with special needs only complicates things more. I went to school for OT but so many kids I see need PT, ST, Orthotics, Prosthetics, etc. and well…there is noone here to provide that but me. I have been forced to try to learn many skills in the above areas but am far from proficient in them. I often feel overwhelmed by the needs & know I am unable to provide for them all. It is hard knowing that most of these children would get 6+ hours of therapy per week in the states but I can only provide an hour a week. I could go on & on listing the challenges & frustrations I face…

BUT…

I choose to focus on what God has done & is doing…To be thankful for how far we have come in bringing therapy to the northwest zone of Haiti. To thank him for the privlige of having a week to work alongside and learn from Phoenix Rising. I can’t help but stop & reflect for a second on how far we have come at the Miriam Center therapy wise.

It is AMAZING that….

1. All the Miriam Home children & FJS outreach children who need foot & hand braces have them

2. We have a fully equipt/functioning pediatric clinic that all 42 Miriam Home children are receiving 1 hour of 1:1 therapy per week

3. All the severe/profound children in Miriam Home and FJS outreach have custom Haitian chairs that allows them to sit up & eat safely without aspirating

4. That we have 35+ families in the therapy outreach portion of FJS that each week receive therapy, families are educated on how to do therapy with their children at home and are poured into spiritually/emotionally each week.

5.  That we have 30+ children in the school outreach portion of FJS and that all the Miriam Home children get to go to school (some are mainstreamed into the public schools & others attend 1 of 3 special education classrooms at the Miriam Center).

5.  That a school in PAP finally opened to train Haitians to be Rehab Techs (OT/PT) and that we have been blessed to take students for their 3 month feildworks at the Miriam Center.

I could go on and on…

Mezi Jezi for providing wisdom, guidance, finances and man-power to bring therapy to the Miriam Center!

 SIDENOTE

I was tremendously blessed that during this week I received a photo from a dear friend and OT classmate/thesis partner in college Emily Orlando collected old AFO's at the Cleveland clinic for me. Look how many she collected at her place of employment. What a blessing these will be to so many children. They have been shipped to teams coming in this summer and so will be in Haiti soon :-)