DAFOs in South America

This may be the first time we’ve seen donated HoundDog knee braces used in a humanitarian effort! Guy Farris, CO, of Summit Orthotics & Prosthetics, near Portland, Oregon, has just returned from trips to Nicaragua and then Peru. In Nicaragua, he went to Granada, the old colonial capital, and worked mostly with children. Guy likes to have a pair of HoundDogs along; he finds them much better than regular knee immobilizers because they are adjustable. The girl who is wearing them, and who seems delighted to have them, has cerebral palsy with high tone and spasticity.

In Peru, Guy, who does this outreach with Capital City Medical Teams of Salem, was part of a team to set up an orthotics & prosthetics facility. They went to Coya, a city in the heart of the Valle Sagrado de los Incas (Sacred Valley of the Incas). Once the clinic was set up, they had a steady stream of people who walked as long as 12 hours (and that with atypical gaits!) to see them. In this seminal effort they saw both children and adults. He met the wide variety of challenges by building a lot of custom orthoses.

Guy Farris, CO, puts a set of HoundDogs to use on a happy patient in Nicaragua.