Almost three months after doctors amputated Emmanuelle Lundy's left leg just below the knee, she is making birthday plans, posting upbeat status updates on Facebook, and looking forward to dancing at a big concert later this month.
Another thing she's doing: ignoring the stares of others as she learns to walk again with a prosthetic limb.
"If people look at me in a strange way, well, I feel normal, and people are going to have to look at me in a normal way," said Lundy, leaning on crutches. "It's my leg, even if I have to take it off to shower."
Lundy, 27, is among 14 amputees who were made somewhat physically whole last week -- and now moving ahead -- after the University of Miami's Project Medishare fitted them with prosthetic limbs at its camp near the Port-au-Prince international airport. Only hours after doctors attached the plastic legs, the amputees began to walk, jog, even kick a soccer ball again. Two days later, they headed home to begin new lives.
"These folks can't believe they were walking in a market and 45 seconds later a building fell on them and they were screaming for help," and they've since lost a limb, said UM's Robert Gailey, rehabilitation coordinator of Project Medishare. "Now, they're able to walk again," said Gailey, who lives in Pinecrest.
The UM program aims to provide prosthetic forms -- limbs, sleeves and sockets -- to 1,800 quake survivors over the next year to 18 months.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/14/1580163/haiti-survivors-stand-strong-with.html#ixzz0lANkIxTA
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