Phoenix Rising

It is always a blessing when Phoenix Rising is in PdP. I have the opportunity of working with them over the last few years. Phoenix Rising is an Orthopedic, Prosthetic, and Physical Therapy team that comes anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks at a time 2-3x a year. They have a building in PdP and see hundreds of patients in the short amount of time they are there providing life changing services. 

Unfortunately this past trip I was unable to spend as much time as I would have liked because the same week they were in PdP we had the orthopedic surgery team and White River Church at the mission. I am glad that we were able to send at least 1 person from the MC therapy team down to PdP to work alongside them each day. 

Having the orthopedic surgery team at the mission at the same time as Phoenix Rising did have a good side to it. Dr. Del could refer non-surgical orthopedic cases to Phoenix Rising and Phoenix Rising was able to refer patients to Dr.  

1 specific cases of this. A women who was riding on a Moto with her children was hit by a truck right in front of Phoenix Rising. She had an compound open fracture in her leg. Phoenix Rising was able to immobilize her leg, start IV fluids and drive her straight to the mission where later that evening she received life saving emergency surgery. 

Monday I got to go down to Phoenix Rising and meet their pediatric Physical Therapist Katie. She reported some supplies that would be helpful throughout the week while seeing and treating children. They graciously drove me back to the mission and I was able to provide children sizes of AFO/s, shoes, handouts, toys, etc. 

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Throughout the week many of the outreach waiting list children got seen. Their families were educated, their child received a treatment session and the families left with ideas of exercises to do at home. Some specific case highlights

Anel got a mold taken for a new prosthetic leg- this will be the 4th leg he has had made over the years. 

Woodsey got a lift made for the leg that he had surgery on last year. Woodley is a miracle in the fact that he is alive and to see him thriving and now able to walk better brought tears to my eyes. 

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Rosekerva got molds take for custom AFO’s and I learned of a place in PAP that we can get custom AFO’s made for only $10USD. What a great resource this will be for specific cases. 

Katie was even able to come for a few hours at the Miriam Center seeing outreach kids and Miriam Center kids and providing PT treatment plans and home programming treatment ideas to the families. I wish I could have kept her all day ;-) She is so knowledgable and I was learning ALOT from her. 

The new pediatric cases that came during the week were also added to the outreach waiting list.  Thank you Katie for sharing all knowledge with me and for helping so many of my families and kids!