What To Do With Used Prostheses?
WillowWood receives several calls a month from families and amputees about what they can do with prostheses that are no longer needed. Our customer care team refers the callers to the Limbs for Life Foundation. We invited Lucy Fraser from the foundation to share what happens these to donations.
Hello from Oklahoma! I am Lucy Fraser, Executive Director of the Limbs for Life Foundation, a “small but mighty” nonprofit that offers a solution to the frequent dilemma of what to do with used prostheses. Here’s an option: send them to Limbs for Life and let us put your donation to work.
Donated limbs are disassembled; usable parts are inventoried and re-routed to prosthetists to serve amputees in need. Donors receive a tax acknowledgment from Limbs for Life, a 501(c) 3 agency. Surplus parts are shared with international missions. The limb that is collecting dust in your storeroom or closet could supply a knee for one of our many clients in Mississippi, a foot for a motorcycle accident survivor in Texas, or a pylon for a father of five in Panama who desperately needs to get back to work to provide for his family.
We also welcome donations of new soft goods – liners, socks, shrinkers, etc. A big THANK YOU goes out to WillowWood, who has been a long-standing champion of our mission by regularly providing us with new liners.
Visit our website limbsforlife.org for details about what items we accept and to download the In-kind Donation Form. Our Componentry Request Form is also online and may be used to request parts for any low income amputee who needs assistance. For information about how to get help from Limbs for Life, call Client Coordinator Rose Young at 888-235-5462. If you have a place to display our counter card (FIGURE 1), contact me at lfraser@limbsforlife.org.
Figure 1: Limbs for Life Counter Card
Limbs for Life is dedicated to providing fully-functional prosthetic care to individuals with no other resources and to raising awareness of the challenges facing amputees. In 2015, we served more than 1,500 amputees through information and referrals, financial assistance and the distribution of donated prosthetic materials. We are only able to achieve these goals with the generous support of our partner clinics and donors across the country. If you are visiting the Heartland, drop by our office in Oklahoma City and say hello. We’d love to meet you!