This Spring I was one of the four undergraduate students who came to India for the annual ‘Strathclyde India Prosthetics and Orthotics Project’. The trip was a part of the Strathclyde Engineering for the Development programme, supported by the Strathclyde Alumni Fund. The aim was to create a long-term collaboration with services in India. This trip included an internship with the Ottobock Artificial Limb Centre and Jaipur Foot clinic in Mumbai, a non-profit social enterprise which provides artificial limbs to people below the poverty line.
Learning on the job
One of the main purposes of this trip was to compare the privately funded and the free services in Indian clinics. At the privately funded Ottobock, I shadowed the lead clinician, as well as took part in patient care and assisted the technicians in the workshops. Along with my fellow intern, we took below and above knee casts of patients, and then filled them. Then, we adapted and modified them to fit the patients using a combination of features taught by Strathclyde and Ottobock. We also adapted several orthotic casts for patients with cerebral palsy.
The Jaipur Foot clinic is a clinic run by technicians who are trained on the job to make prosthetic and orthotic devices free of charge. The clinic, where everything is produced from scratch, is supported by the government and relies mainly on donations. The Jaipur Foot, a rubber-based prosthetic leg for people with both above and below-knee amputation, is made from recycled materials including car tyres and wood. Here all patients are prescribed a similar socket design which is made from a drainpipe material.
I also attended a Jaipur mobile foot camp in Mumbai where we saw polio patients who would typically be prescribed a long-leg orthosis called a KAFO — Knee-Ankle-Foot Orthosis — which aims to stabilise the joints and assist the muscles of the leg.
My experiences here have shown me that there are many ways to solve a problem. Many of the amputations which take place are due to traffic accidents and diabetes. Even though people are vaccinated against polio now, many are still affected by this, and also by cerebral palsy. So, the need for these services is growing.
Organisations such as the Jaipur Foot clinic are making a big difference in people’s lives. Many patients are concerned with appearance and do not want to come across as disabled. If it was not for these services, many people would not have the chance to work and take care of themselves and their families. I felt a great spirit of unity working alongside these technicians and clinicians.
The writer is a final year student of BSc (Honours) programme in Prosthetics and Orthotics at the University of Strathclyde.
