Upper limb prosthetic services post haiti earthquake: Experiences and recommendations of haiti-based rehabilitation program

The World Report on Disability 2011 estimates that 0.5% of the population in developing countries is in need of prosthetic and orthotic services. However, in such environments, access to services and availability of data to support interventions are severely lacking. The 2010 earthquake in Haiti raised international awareness on the issue of persons with amputation in low-resource and disaster settings. At the same time, a rapid influx of humanitarian responders to provide prosthetic services occurred. Although efforts were not well coordinated with identified leads for the disaster response, many individuals in Haiti benefited from improved access to such services. However, most efforts focused on lower-limb amputations. Herein, we report on the experiences of a nongovernmental nonprofit organization in providing upper-limb prosthetic services in Haiti 2010-2011 (n = 181), with a focus on recommendations for ongoing and long-term support of regionally based prosthetics training programs.