Juan More Leg!
Donation protected
A few months ago, at our San Raymundo clinic, a one legged man approached me pulling a crumpled bit of paper out of his pocket. On the paper, barely legible, was scribbled: "Nancy Neuman San Raymundo".
When I started leading medical teams for Refuge International, I never imagined that we would also get into the leg business. There is something about seeing your own name on a scrap of paper in the hands of a complete stranger....it compells one to action.
Meet Juan Gabino Huertas.
Juan is from Puerto San Jose, a long, long bus ride away. He works as a car park attendent making less than the typical daily wage of about $6 US/day. His leg was fractured in an accident but, as happens all too often in Guatemala, infection and then gangrene set in. Juan had to actually fight to have his leg amputated as the hospital had no funds to treat him.
Now he is fighting to have his leg replaced. Juan met Edmar, a patient of ours who we amputated due to very similar circumstances. Edmar was about 30 years old when his family took him out of the government hospital where he was dying from a gangrenous leg. Dr. Stanley, an orthopedic surgeon from Longview, Texas, wanted to amputate immediately but Edmar resisted because life on one leg in Guatemala would reduce him to begging in the street. We had recently established a relationship with Transitions, an organization run by Guatemalans employing the handicapped. They provide prosthetics at very low cost. We fulfilled our promise to hook Edmar up with them---he was our first leg.
Edmar was traveling to Puerto San Jose and made Juan's acquaintance. That is how my name came to be scribbled on a scrap of paper which traveled in the pocket of a one legged man all the way to our backwater clinic.
A prosthetic isn't like getting a new pair of shoes---it takes a fighting spirit to adapt to the device and willingness to see the process through over about a 2 year period. I told Juan that he needed to prove to me that he was willing to do his part, literally put some skin the game and get his newly healed stump ready for the pressure ahead. He has traveled to Transitions to be assessed and over the last 4 mos. accumulated $650 from his family to help defray the cost of his new leg.
And this is where all of us who care about making a HUGE difference, one person at a time, come in.....
Would you consider donating $5 to $10 to help with the cost of the rest of his leg? I figure he's paid from his thigh to the knee....but I think we can help him get all the way down! In the US his prosthetic would cost over $10K but we need only $1500 more to give him the opportunity to live and work with dignity.
Even if you can afford it or feel compelled, please don't give big amounts....here is why....
I think it would be great to have a list of dozens, maybe hundreds, of names scribbled on a piece of wrinkled and folded paper to give to Juan when I see him next.
I want Juan to be able to tell this story and then pull out of his pocket a crumpled paper--that traveled from thousands of miles away--with your name on it....
Thank you.
Nancy
When I started leading medical teams for Refuge International, I never imagined that we would also get into the leg business. There is something about seeing your own name on a scrap of paper in the hands of a complete stranger....it compells one to action.
Meet Juan Gabino Huertas.
Juan is from Puerto San Jose, a long, long bus ride away. He works as a car park attendent making less than the typical daily wage of about $6 US/day. His leg was fractured in an accident but, as happens all too often in Guatemala, infection and then gangrene set in. Juan had to actually fight to have his leg amputated as the hospital had no funds to treat him.Now he is fighting to have his leg replaced. Juan met Edmar, a patient of ours who we amputated due to very similar circumstances. Edmar was about 30 years old when his family took him out of the government hospital where he was dying from a gangrenous leg. Dr. Stanley, an orthopedic surgeon from Longview, Texas, wanted to amputate immediately but Edmar resisted because life on one leg in Guatemala would reduce him to begging in the street. We had recently established a relationship with Transitions, an organization run by Guatemalans employing the handicapped. They provide prosthetics at very low cost. We fulfilled our promise to hook Edmar up with them---he was our first leg.
Edmar was traveling to Puerto San Jose and made Juan's acquaintance. That is how my name came to be scribbled on a scrap of paper which traveled in the pocket of a one legged man all the way to our backwater clinic.
A prosthetic isn't like getting a new pair of shoes---it takes a fighting spirit to adapt to the device and willingness to see the process through over about a 2 year period. I told Juan that he needed to prove to me that he was willing to do his part, literally put some skin the game and get his newly healed stump ready for the pressure ahead. He has traveled to Transitions to be assessed and over the last 4 mos. accumulated $650 from his family to help defray the cost of his new leg.
And this is where all of us who care about making a HUGE difference, one person at a time, come in.....
Would you consider donating $5 to $10 to help with the cost of the rest of his leg? I figure he's paid from his thigh to the knee....but I think we can help him get all the way down! In the US his prosthetic would cost over $10K but we need only $1500 more to give him the opportunity to live and work with dignity.
Even if you can afford it or feel compelled, please don't give big amounts....here is why....
I think it would be great to have a list of dozens, maybe hundreds, of names scribbled on a piece of wrinkled and folded paper to give to Juan when I see him next.
I want Juan to be able to tell this story and then pull out of his pocket a crumpled paper--that traveled from thousands of miles away--with your name on it....
Thank you.
Nancy
Organizer and beneficiary
Nancy Roden Neuman
Organizer
Dallas, TX
Deborah Bell
Beneficiary