Completing lives by fitting legs to amputees

KARACHI: Whenever Majid takes off his shoes either at work or at a shop to try out the new ones, people are shocked to see that one is artificial. Highly normal and active for a disabled person, Majid Aziz, who works at a local hospital as a staff nurse, is completely satisfied with his life. He has a 9 to 5 job with a good salary and aims and wishes like all other people.

When he lost his left leg in a road accident in 1992, like all people, he did not know that the disability will ever leave him. “When I lost my leg, nothing changed. For others I may have become a disabled person but my family still loved me the same way and the I could still see things as they were before,” he said.

However, he does admit that there were difficult times. “Initially, I became disillusioned and dependent on the wheel chair and the stick and other walk-aid material” he told. “But then one visit to a local prosthetics centre made me walk back to the normal track” he said.

The Artificial Limb Center (ALC) from where Majid got his limb fitted has so far completed the lives of many a disabled in Karachi by enabling them to walk on their two feet. It is a landmark venture of the Healthcare and Social Welfare Association established in 2008 located in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and provides free prosthesis for leg and foot and free calipers for post polio deformity patients.

The prosthetic limb technology used is probably one of the best in the world. “This artificial limb, borrowed from one of the largest organisations of artificial limb the ‘Jaipur foot organisation of India’ is lightweight, flexible and practically feasible. Probably one of the most inexpensive and convenient limbs designed especially for the people of Asia based on their special needs” told Dr Viquar Quraishi, the patron of the project when it started in 2007.

The Jaipur Foot has a life of 4-5 years and can enable patients to walk on uneven surfaces, walk barefoot, squat and sit crossed-legged.

Dr Feroz Ismail, the President of HASWA and member of the Rotary Club of Karachi who is running the ALC, told The Express Tribune that although there are many centers that fit artificial limbs they are not essentially free and are not technically trained. “I personally had to pay Rs 18,000 at a government hospital for a patient before ALC was made” he told. He emphasised that the idea of bringing the technology to the city was not just to cater to the poor but basically the needy ones.

“As the human body grows and changes the patients have to get adjustments made in their artificial foot which is not possible without having a permanent facility center” he specified.

He told that the entire equipment set-up at the ALC has been borrowed from India, including the materials. “We still buy some of the raw material from Jaipur Foot like the foot and the mould plastic which is their forte and has no alternate in Pakistan,” said he.

Talking about the number of patients treated at the ALC he told that since 2008, more than 3,300 patients have received calipers and fitted with prosthetic limbs.

With a small set-up, the team at the ALC consists of about 12 people, but anyone and everyone that visits the place without a leg or two, walks back home on his own feet, and the legs are fixed free of cost.  Financed by the Rotary Club, Karachi, and other private institutions the patients are never asked to pay a single penny for their medical services, told Azfar an office worker at ALC.

“We about 150 patients per month and as soon as a patient comes to us we try to fix them with a leg the same day as they usually visit us from far flung areas” told Mohammad Kashif, a technician at the ALC. “These patients are not only form Karachi but form all other parts of Sindh and Pakistan” added Kashif.

Waqas Ali Khan, who went to the ALC as a patient after losing a leg due to cancer said that he chose to stay there and work for the organization to help those who are disillusioned by their disability and are wasting their life pitying with themselves when they can lead a normal life with a little attention.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2010.