(March 4, 2011 - by Ralph Kurtenbach) The lifeless muscles held just one result for Rosita, a 9-year-old snakebite victim from Ecuador's Amazon region-she would lose her leg.
"She had come too late," wrote HCJB Global Hands physician Eckehart Wolff. "The muscles of the leg had already died, and we had to amputate it to save her life." A missionary surgeon, Wolff performed the operation at Hospital Vozandes-Shell about 18 months ago.
Rosita's medical crisis changed her family's lifestyle. They left their home and fields in the rainforest and began living in the custodian's quarters at a school near Shell. The family has started a new life with Rosita using crutches to limp around on one leg in the schoolyard.
Somehow, Rosita was overlooked by a comprehensive campaign by Ecuador's government to help the nation's disabled. Her home province, Pastaza, was not among the first eight provinces helped.
Ecuadorian Vice President Lenín Moreno (who is wheelchair bound) announced in February that a governmental effort called Manuela Espejo Solidarity Mission would continue identifying the disabled with a view of helping 290,000 people with disabilities.
In addition, the government has announced monthly disability payments for 14,479 Ecuadorians who qualify with plans to construct up to 3,000 homes for the neediest of these. When attempts to get a prosthesis for Rosita failed, however, she and her family returned to talk with Wolff who referred them to help in Quito.
"We found them a hostel where they could stay and put her brother in touch with a foundation that agreed to make a prosthesis for Rosita," said Wolff. "After three weeks everything was adjusted. The physical therapist showed Rosita how to walk." Soon enough, the crutches were stored at home, only for emergency use.
"Two weeks later, she is running about with other children in the schoolyard," said Wolff.
Sources: HCJB Global, El Comercio, El Ciudadano
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