FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Prosthetics Outreach Foundation (POF)
Shira Rosen, Development Director
Phone: 206-726-1636
info@pofsea.org
www.pofsea.org
Local Orthopedic Surgeon Volunteers to Help Poor in Vietnam Walk Again
Seattle, WA — July 19, 2005: "It is a very emotional experience to see children walking when they couldn't before; to see their legs and feet straight when before they were crooked; and to see amputees, who could only hop on painful stumps, walk effortlessly on a new prosthesis," said POF board member Pierce Scranton, MD.
For the fourth year in a row, Dr. Scranton, of Issaquah, WA, led a team of volunteer surgeons from the United States to Vietnam to surgically correct debilitating limb deformities and revise amputations for 54 patients, mostly children. Drs. Naomi Shields of Wichita, KS, William Gondring of St. Joseph, MO, Lowell Lutter of Minneapolis, MN, Robert Adelaar of Richmond, VA, and Loch Trimingham of Bellingham, WA, spent two weeks performing surgeries to help people walk again. Since the program started in 2002, 234 disabled children and adults have received life-changing orthopedic surgery.
 The visiting U.S. surgeons shared knowledge with the Vietnamese surgeons as they worked side-by-side during the orthopedic operations. The teamwork improves the skills of local surgeons, and advanced the relationship between the two countries. "Surgeries are good opportunities for both Vietnamese and U.S. doctors, particularly the young ones, to practice and exchange experiences as well as boost understanding between them in regards to surgery and rehabilitation," said Dr. Toan, Chief of Orthopedics at the Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi.
POF also co-sponsored the third Vietnamese seminar on surgery of the lower extremities in Hanoi. The conference brings together American and Vietnamese orthopedic surgeons to exchange information and learn new techniques in their field. This year, over 200 Vietnamese surgeons were in attendance.
U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Marine, gave the opening address in which he stressed the importance of the conference and the information exchange between the two countries. "These activities serve to improve at the grassroots level, the social, economic and political relationship between Vietnam and the U.S.," he said.
The Prosthetics Outreach Foundation restores mobility and independence worldwide to amputees and other disadvantaged persons suffering from orthopedic disabilities. POF currently works in Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. In Vietnam, all limbs and their components are manufactured with local materials, by Vietnamese technicians and prosthetic staff. Through in-country prosthetic fabrication, POF is able to construct, deliver and fit an artificial limb for only $300 – a fraction of the cost of a prosthetic limb in the U.S. You can lean more about POF's activities at www.pofsea.org.
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