CrutchesTo Haiti, an Orlando Based Organization, Spearheads a Nationwide Call to Action for Used Orthopaedic Devices to Go to Haitian Amputees

Orlando, FL, February 14, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Crutches To Haiti, a relief organization based in Apopka, Florida, near Orlando, has recently received donations of hundreds of crutches, canes, walkers and wheelchairs from the homeowners of Central Florida, to be shipped and distributed to Haitian amputees as a result of the recent earthquake. The organization, in association with Harvest Time International, a respected relief shipper, is working day and night to fill and send a semi-trailer load of these goods to the injured.

“Some people wrongly believe that sending orthopedic devices to Haiti is not important at this time”, said Dr. Ralph Gousse a Haitian-American oncologist in Altamonte Springs, Florida, an advisor to the organization. “I have recently returned from Port-au-Prince, where I witnessed a brilliant, young Haitian law student who, when given the choice of amputation of a leg, or significant complication like gangrene or death, chose not to be amputated, because living without any means of mobility in Haiti is often a fate worth then death. A mother, when told that her young son would need a limb amputated, removed her child from the medical care that could have saved his life. If these injured people would have had the orthopedic devices that they so desperately needed, a life may have been saved.”

But it is not just the maimed that now suffer. The average wage in Haiti is less than two dollars a day. There are no social services or rehabilitation centers. A disabled person, unable to move about, earn money or care for others, and who requires constant attention, is a terrible burden on a family in that country. But more than ten thousand estimated amputees, immobile and unable to work or support a family, and the network of other individuals directly associated with these people, is a humanitarian disaster that will undoubtedly begin to have a devastating ripple affect throughout that society.

“We are in need of more donated goods before our mission is complete, and we are asking for support from anyone who may be storing medical devices of this type, or know someone else who is”, said Ron Liss, founder of the organization. “It doesn’t cost any money to donate something you no longer need. And it can save a life in Haiti." To donate goods to Crutches To Haiti or other organizations throughout the country collecting similar items, visit CrutchesToHaiti.com

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