The FOOT Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Tampa, Fla., recently completed a weeklong project at the children’s hospital in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

The O&P clinic was the third since the inception of the foundation. Comprising a team of three practitioners and a technician from Florida, the FOOT (Florida O&P Outreach Team) Foundation evaluated, casted and fabricated 29 orthoses, 13 prostheses and provided three additional consults in just 5 days.

“We are not about mass production. It’s about educating the locals on orthotic and prosthetic maintenance and treatment so that they can continue to care for their own long after we are gone,” Dino Scanio, CO, LO, pediatric orthotist and founder of the FOOT Foundation, said. “We must help rural countries by teaching them how to use local supplies more effectively and increasing their level of understanding.”

 

 

(Left to right): Bryan Sinnott, CPO; Mike Wright, CPO; Dino Scanio, CO and Mike Hanson, technician, fabricated 29 orthoses and 13 prostheses.

Images: Dino Scanio 

It takes Scanio about 6 months to 8 months to coordinate and select team members before departing for a clinic. He receives medical information and photographs for each patient in advance of the team’s arrival so that appropriate preparations can be made to maximize the time spent in the local region.

Photos of past clinics as well as special community projects can be found at the FOOT Foundation’s updated website, www.footfoundation.org.