LLHSC HAS PRODUCED ITS FIRST BELOW-KNEE PROSTHESIS!

Thanks to funds from USAID’S ASHA programme, and through the good offices of American Leprosy Missions (ALM), our new footwear and prosthesis unit was built, equipped and then opened in June 2018. We then recruited Ramesh – a very experienced prosthesis technician..

NOW – LLHSC has produced its first below-the- knee prosthesis! … this is quite a triumph for LLHSC – a landmark achievement in the on-going development of LLHSC, and a wonderful step forward for rehabilitating and restoring severely disabled leprosy patients… and others who are similarly crippled.

SUSHIL is 22 years old. He needed a below-knee amputation of his left leg, late last year. He and his parents were understandably depressed about his future. Now, with his stump healed, the staff at our prosthesis unit have been able to design, fabricate, fashion, mold, and fit Sushil with a prosthetic leg. It’s the first one we have made at LLHSC. After several fittings and shapings, he got his new completed leg just yesterday – 10 March 2019 –  a memorable day for him and us! …. And he has already enthusiastically started learning to walk again on two legs.

SUSHIL SAYS I can tell you how thrilled he is. He knows that with walking practice, he will soon walk totally normally, and with the prosthesis under his trouser leg, no-one will even know he has a left leg prosthesis.

Now, he says with much joy, he can rebuild his mobility and his future, and get on with his life again.