"Jaipur foot" changing lives for many Chennaiites

CHENNAI: Many people who have lost their arms or legs due to accidents or illnesses, get a new lease of life with artificial prosthetic limbs. "Jaipur foot", has become a life changer for these individuals as they receive customised prosthetics, tailor made for their requirements.

Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti by D R Mehta is launching its South India Center with its unit in Chennai on July 17th, 2023, that will provide free prosthetic limbs to the ones in need. The organization, started in Rajasthan, provides prosthetic hands, legs, crutches, tricycles etc, and they are popularly called "Jaipur Foot".The organisation is providing artificial limbs to everyone who needs them for free, after carefully assessing and examining the patients.

Sivaranjani S, prosthesist and orthotist and incharge at the unit explains the process, "We take the assessments and measurements for the limbs to ensure that it fits them properly, just like their hand. We later undertake an assessment to decide the size and kind of intervention needed. To do the tailor-made designs, we take the measurements of the foot and do a cast in plaster of Paris to get the exact details, size and breadth of it. The material for prosthetics is of polymer and a lining sheet is also that the skin is not in touch with the prosthetics. The prosthetics are made as barefoot so that the ones using it have a sense of a real limb."

Several diabetics are prone to injuries easily and we make sure they don't get infected. The prosthetic limbs are then administered and train them to walk or move the limbs confidently. We will also be giving training to the people who have never used a prosthetic leg, starting with slow walking, then step walking and other movements, " she added.

The unit has trained prosthetics and orthotics to take care of the operations. Dr Vinod Surana, heading the operations of the unit in Chennai, said that the organisation aims to provide 75,000 customised limbs to people in Tamil Nadu by 2030. We are doing 5-7 limbs in a day currently and we want to scale it up to 33 limbs per day.

"Over 20 lakh people in 38 countries in the past 50 years have received prosthetics from the organisation that has a special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations Organisation. "The government is sponsoring the camps for prosthetic limbs in other countries. We have permanent camps in various parts of the country and we also organise camps occasionally, " he added.