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The FOOT (Florida O&P Outreach Team) Foundation recently sent an inaugural mission team to the Hospital Infantíl de Infectología y Rehabilitación (HIIR) in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
The foundation provides orthotic and prosthetic services to children and adults of impoverished countries, as well as local charitable assistance.
Founded in 2007 by orthotist Dino Scanio and his wife, Lisa, the FOOT Foundation comprises a like-minded core group of professionals, including Tampa Bay area prosthetists Danny Griner, Addam Griner, Eddie Rogowski and Bryan Sinnott. Scanio has worked for more than 2 years at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Tampa, Fla.
Occupational therapist and translator Toni Thompson and videographer Dave Amis rounded out the Guatemala service group.
In addition to fabricating and delivering devices, the mission of FOOT addresses long-range carry-over by educating local practitioners in an interactive clinical setting.
The FOOT Foundation team coordinated the trip with members of the Physicians for Peace (PFP) Walking Free program, prosthetist Ben Blecha, physical therapist Shannon Kidd, and physiatrist Joseph Webster, to develop a week-long transfemoral prosthetics program.
The group focused on providing team-based services with opportunities for teaching. Two cases were filmed from start to finish, which will provide the basis for bilingual video teaching modules and written manuals on transfemoral prosthetic fabrication and the Lock-it Socket technique.
In addition to prosthetists, local team member counterparts included pediatricians, physiatrists, physical and occupational therapists, psychologists, and social workers from various local facilities. By week’s end, the local counterparts were molding and modifying the devices with feedback from the FOOT volunteers.
