Strictly speaking, this is not a story about a Dankmeyer patient. Rather, it is a story about Dankmeyer patients helping other patients - patients they do not even know. How does this happen? Sometimes, patients will donate prostheses or orthoses back to Dankmeyer when they are no longer needed for some reason. This is a story of some gently used pediatric orthoses which made their way from Dankmeyer to an orphanage in China. This story is best told by Rachel Lins, a Physical Therapy student at the University of Delaware. Rachel contacted Mark Hopkins about possible donations, and so off the devices went to China.
In March of 2013 I had the opportunity to visit a foster home in a small village just outside of Beijing, China, called New Day Foster Home. Since then, I've been keeping an eye out for ways I can help them out or connect them to resources here in the states since I have access to various organizations through my education at the University of Delaware - I’m a student physical therapist.
Initially the foster home caught my attention because it is specifically open to orphans with medical disabilities and has a PT (and other medical personnel) on-site. They currently serve approximately 36 children (not including its two sister locations which add roughly 16 children to the total count) with their purpose being to procure life saving medical treatment for these little ones and provide all the love they possibly can to them until they find their "forever families." Their list of needs change, as children come and go, but they see such a vast variety of medical disabilities/conditions that they're pretty open to medical supplies. So far, concerning orthotics, they have mentioned they are able to adjust them to fit their needs.
For more information about the New Day Foster Home you can visit their website: http://www.newdaycreations.com/foster/kids/kids_bj.htm. For a list of supplies needed by the home, see http://newdaycreations.com/foster/help/needs.htm.
If you have any other questions or wish to put a contact name on your information, Karen Brennamen can be contacted at Karen@newdaycreations.com. She and her husband moved to China in 1995 to start developing New Day Creations (a manufacturing company) and New Day Foster Home.
