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Prosthetist sees 50 patients in four days
Prosthetist and orthotist Marc Kaufman of Hanger Clinic demonstrates the use of a foot scanner. (Erwin Encinares)
The pent-up need in the CNMI for a medical expert on prosthetics is so great that a certified prosthetist and orthotist from Atlanta, Georgia, who came to Saipan to see patients was flooded by patients who’ve been waiting to see one.
Hanger Clinic Area Clinic manager Marc Kaufman told the Saipan Tribune that he has already processed more than 50 patients over the course of four days on the island.
He started seeing patients last Feb. 19 and was here for four days to provide diabetics and amputees with prosthetic limbs, specialized footbeds, and even specialized footwear.
Kaufman believes there is “definitely opportunity to service other islands.”
“I have done things in other countries before. I have gone to Honduras, I have gone to Haiti, and those patients did not have insurance. Here, in a U.S. territory, they have U.S. insurance, so I am able to provide services that they need while the company gets reimbursed for it,” he said.
Kaufman immediately noticed the high number of patients with diabetes in the Commonwealth.
“Most of the patients I have seen here I am seeing because they have diabetes. Some of them have had strokes, brain aneurysms, and paralysis on one side of their body,” he said. Cases of neurological disease are also present.
“I have also encountered patients that had Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a neurological disease that affects the nerves outside the brain and the spinal cord,” said Kaufman.
Kaufman said he would be returning to Atlanta to work on the prosthetics before coming back to Saipan in about six weeks to fit the orders for the patients as well as accept other patients who weren’t able to see him last week.
Kaufman learned about Saipan through a common friend, physical therapist Pam Carhill of Eucon Medical Health Center.
