New Legs and More Interviews

Yesterday’s birthday girl, Aulalia, was due to be fitted with new prostheses today, and we were scheduled to watch the process and to interview her. At left, you will see her removing the prostheses so that technician Joel could take them to be changed. Joel took two new "feet" out of a box, attached them to the metal posts that serve as legs, and made sure that all was securely tightened.What you see in the picture are the covers for her stumps, one of which is longer than the other. Inside the cover is soft padding to keep the stumps comfortable while Aulalia is wearing the prostheses. When Joel returned the prosthesis to her, one foot was slightly "off," so Joel went about the process of straightening it out by making an adjustment in the area of what would be her ankle. Once the adjustments were made, Aulalia covered the prostheses with her pant legs and it was difficult to tell that the legs were not her own. In fact, she started kicking around a soccer ball with BECA student Ari Sandoval after the fitting! We interviewed her and her father. In the photo above, you see Aulalia's father, Aulalia, Transitions staff member Nazario (back to camera), interviewer Lydia Bell, and videographer Eric Cuadra. Aulalia has been coming to Transitions for ten years, and in that time, she has had three prostheses. She was born without legs, and she had at least two surgeries - one in Antigua and one in Guatemala City - before being fitted with prostheses.

The next interview was with Nazario, the Transitions client and staff member pictured above. He is a delightful young man who always has a smile for everyone and who appears to be more comfortable without his prosthetic arms than with them. One of the reasons for that is that the arms need adjustment, and there is not money in the Transitions budget for that adjustment right now. Transitions depends on sponsors for this kind of expense, and no one has come forward as yet to pay for the next adjustment. Meanwhile, it is amazing to see what Nazario can do with his stumps! This morning, we saw him help move a set of parallel bars that provide support when someone is learning to walk with prosthetics. We also saw him hold a plastic water bottle to drink from itl