Under the invitation of Rotarian and Past President Josh Lioce, the Milford Rotary Club recently hosted Dr. Donald Adams, a Framingham podiatrist who has volunteered his service for 10 days every year for the past seven years as part of the Rotary International Operation Footprint Project in Honduras.
The Club Foot project AKA Operation Footprint has been a long-standing project supported in part by Sunrise Rotary Club (Westlake Village Sunrise) near Los Angeles, California because of the involvement of one of its members, Dr. Michael Zapf, DPM. It began in the late '70's as The Baja Project for Crippled Children Inc., expanded in the '80's to include Tijuana, in the '90's to El Salvador and finally in 2002 to Honduras by the invitation of the Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa and Hospital San Felipe.
Dr. Donald Adams gave a heartwarming and very informative overview of the amazing work being accomplished by a group of doctors working under third world conditions during an annual weeklong surgical mission. They pay their own way and donate their time, expertise and guidance.
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Since the Honduras project began approximately 450 children have been operated on for the correction of neglected clubfoot deformity, as well as other neuromuscular deformities of the feet and legs. In some cases the doctors operate on both feet at the same time with individual teams working on a single foot.
Additionally, they present demonstrations and lectures to train Honduran physicians, residents-in-training, and nurses to recognize and treat clubfoot deformity in the Ponseti method of manipulation and casting so as to prevent these deformities from going untreated.
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They also deliver medical supplies and casting materials so treatments are available at the hospital with an orthopedist’s supervision after the doctors return to America. For more information on this amazing Rotary project visit http://www.operationfootprint.org. Some of the information in this article can be seen on their website.
