News Story

Spinal Injury Patients Recieve Needed Mobility Aid

Having a spinal injury can be a traumatic experience for any individual. In some cases, such an injury means the patient has little hope of functional recovery. The patients thus need some means of mobility aid to be able to live some semblance of normal life.

In East and Central Africa there is only one fully equipped hospital that cares for spinal injury patients. The National Spinal Injury hospital located in Nairobi, receives referrals of patients from across the region and helps rehabilitate them. Many of these patients cannot afford to acquire mobility aids such as wheelchairs and therefore require the goodwill of good Samaritans to be able to have more meaningful lives after discharge from the hospital.

Through the partnership that LDS Charities, the humanitarian arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has with Association of the Physically Disabled in Kenya (APDK) to manufacture wheelchairs and identify needy cases in the society, APDK was able to supply some of the wheelchairs to the patients at The National Spinal Injury hospital on Feb 2013. At this event 17 patients benefited from this donation. Among them was Hussein Hassan who stated on receiving his wheelchair, “I’m very happy for the donation, now I can move around easily.”

The National Spinal Injury Hospital is led by Dr. Otieno Soren, an accomplished orthopedic surgeon who was involved in the well documented transforming spine surgery of Salma Suleiman. Speaking during the hospital tour during the donation, he stated, “The hospital is very thankful for this partnership and look forward for more help in future.”

The Director of APDK, Walter Odhiambo, and other staff from the organization and Humanitarian and Public Affairs officials from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were also at the hospital during the donation.

In the past few months, such wheelchairs have been donated to patients in other major hospitals across Kenya including Kenyatta National Hospital. 

Additional Resources

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