| SIGN in Chad |
Ma Joie, an 8-year old living in Chad, spent two months in traction
waiting for her broken femur to heal. She was originally taken to a traditional bonesetter, but her fracture healed crookedly. SIGN wants to provide better treatment for children like Ma Joie.
Please help,SIGN help children like Ma Joie!
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Eight-year-old Ma Joie was walking to school along a busy road in her hometown N'Djamena, Chad, when she was struck by a motorcycle and slammed to the pavement, badly fracturing her femur.
Her family could not afford to take her to a hospital for treatment, so they sought out a traditional bonesetter. The fracture healed crookedly, leaving Ma Joie with a leg shortened by about four inches. Her grandfather eventually took her to Béré Adventist Hospital where Dr. James Appel did what he could. The hospital has little to offer its patients in terms of orthopaedic care, but Dr. Appel promised to do what he could. He re-broke the femur, drilled a pin through her bone and attached a curved wire to the pin. He then tied on a rope and attached it to a bag of sand, with the weight pulling her leg to the proper length. Ma Joie spent the next 2 months in bed, depending upon her grandparents to care for her. Eventually, her femur healed and she was able to resume her childhood. After meeting Dr. Appel at the SIGN conference, we decided to give him a SIGN starter kit. He can use the SIGN system in future cases to stabilize the bone and allow the patient to walk on crutches 24 hours after surgery, allowing patients like Ma Joie and her family to return home within a few days.
SIGN is moving ahead with plans to help children like Ma Joie by providing imaging equipment and implants so she and others can leave the hospital within days, instead of months. With your support, SIGN can provide children with access to the best available orthopaedic care.
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