Recipients happy with new limbs

By ZACHERY PER
A WEEK-long assistive device clinic held in at the Goroka General Hospital last week ended with more than 80 patients receiving assistive devices.
A visiting national orthotic and prosthetic service (NOPS) team from Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae, Morobe, provided the devices.
Patients who lost limbs, especially legs and hands from motor vehicle accidents, tribal fights, and domestic violence and other ways needing assistive devices came to the week-long camp in numbers.
The team led by NOPS technical advisor Rajesh Nanda helped provide prosthesis (artificial limbs) or replaced old ones they have had for many years.
The programme was carried out at the physiotherapy ward at the Goroka General Hospital.
Nanda said there was a great need for assistive devices in Papua New Guinea but the Government had not focused on this worthy cause.
He said the small NOPS team had visited some of the main hospitals in the country conducting awareness and providing assistive devices to patients.
The team visited Alotau, Buka and Goroka last week and helped many people with lost limbs.
The team comprised of four technical staff, Robin Dail, Ronald Arku and Nanda.
Many of the recipients commended the efforts of the team led by Nanda.
An elderly recipient, Yugufa Kotefa, from Ketarabo village, 7km south of Goroka town,
He was very happy after receiving a new prosthetic right leg to replace the one he had lost six years ago in a car accident in Goroka.