A Chattanooga native who suffered a double-amputation as a teenager is reaching out to the massive number of Haitians who have lost limbs in the aftermath of the earthquake.
"It was something I realized I needed to do," said Jordan Thomas, a McCallie School graduate who lost his legs from the calves down in a 2005 boating accident.
Mr. Thomas, now 21, started a nonprofit foundation in 2006 to help sponsored children afford a lifetime of custom prosthetics, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars apiece.
The Jordan Thomas Foundation is devoting $25,000 to purchase equipment and prosthetic kits for a Haiti-based clinic, founded in 2001 by Chattanooga physical therapist June Hanks. The donations will double the equipment in the prosthetics lab and will fund 50 prosthetic kits that will be used to make custom prosthetic devices.
"It doesn't matter if they're American kids or Haitian kids," Mr. Thomas said. "They absolutely have to be given these prosthetics. ... With prosthetics they can be productive and achieve whatever they want and not be limited by the disability."
Although estimates range widely, Handicap International has estimated that 2,000 to 4,000 people in Haiti have undergone limb amputations since the magnitude-7.0 earthquake ravaged the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Jan. 12.
"There was a tremendous need for rehabilitation in Haiti prior to the earthquake," Dr. Hanks said. "The number of persons with disabilities has exponentially expanded."
The prosthetics clinic in Haiti is one component of the Advantage program, which includes a rehabilitation clinic, vocational training program for disabled women, as well as a prosthetics and orthotics shop.
Mr. Thomas' funds will help the shop get started addressing a problem of massive proportions, said Dr. Hanks, who also is an associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She's headed to Haiti on Friday to help the program develop its relief plan.
"We have the goal of fitting 250 of these prostheses by the end of July," Dr. Hanks said. "With his purchase of 50, that gets us started."
Mr. Thomas said he wants to provide as many prosthetics as possible to children in need.
"I think this is a perfect opportunity for people in the community, all around the U.S., all around the world, to step up and help," he said.
After his accident Mr. Thomas, fitted with prosthetic legs, continued to play golf and bowl at McCallie. Now a junior at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, Mr. Thomas has received the national Courage Award from the Courage Center, a rehab and resource center in Minneapolis, and his philanthropic work was profiled on "CNN Newsroom" last year.
ON THE WEB
www.advantagehaiti.com
www.jordanthomasfoundation.org