Baja Crippled Children Project, by Marc Benard, DPM

          Marc Benard is a Podiatrist in Torrance.  He attended Penn State University and sang in New York’s Manhattan Light Opera.  He has been a Del Amo Rotarian since 1988 and will be involved with our District Art, Speech and Music Competition in 2012-2013.  While in his Podiatry Residency at LA County-USC Hospital, a request came from Mexico in 1978 to provide surgeries to polio and neuromuscular patients, and he has been involved in international foot-care programs since then.

         Many foot deformities are congenital, caused by home births, troubled pregnancies and deliveries, twisted umbilical cords, cerebral palsy, neuro/spinal/muscular problems and genetic predisposition.  The most common are clubfeet, upside down/backwards feet and extra toes.  The team tries to get to the children within the first month of life, to manipulate and then put the child’s feet in casts.  After 6 months, the feet become rigid and more difficult to correct.  Delay impacts the ability to walk, making the deformity worse.  The procedure can be done in two stages: first get the patient to walk on toes, and then on the entire foot from toes to heel.

          Without the corrective surgeries, these deformities make the children and adults social outcasts, unemployable and undesirable for marriage because of the disability and stigma.  Correcting the foot deformity helps the entire family.  The biggest challenge is getting the patients to the doctors.  The families often live in remote areas with long difficult travel to the city and hospital.  Moreover, if there are other children at home, it is almost impossible for one parent to accompany the patient while leaving the other parent behind to work and leave the other children unattended.

Funding goes for surgical equipment and supplies.  Donations come from humanitarian organizations such as Rotary grants.  $75,000 each year goes to three different projects.  To date over 28,000 potential patients have been examined and 2800 procedures done, and the project has expanded to Honduras, El Salvador and now pending in Belize.

          For all of our complaints in the US, we live in a health care delivery paradise.  What health care we cannot buy, we still can get.  This is not the case in South and Central America where the unemployed have no opportunity for health care except by international humanitarian efforts such as through Rotary International.