Jon Batzdorff's dream of fitting Haitian amputees with artificial limbs is being realized -- finally -- on the earthquake-shattered Caribbean island.
Seven Haitians have been fitted with artificial legs at the outdoor prosthetics laboratory contained in two steel shipping containers Batzdorff dispatched from Santa Rosa in May.
"It was like a party. They were all talking, animated, posing for pictures," the Santa Rosa prosthesis specialist said, recalling the scene in in Port-au-Prince two weeks ago.
"It was huge," said Batzdorff, who returned home on Oct. 25.
But little came easily for Batzdorff and four other volunteers who spent 15 days in Haiti, enduring steamy tropical weather, a cholera outbreak and malodorous garbage and sewage in the rainwashed streets.
The team worked 12-hour days, with waves of frustration capped by breakthroughs, such as coaxing a 220-volt industrial oven to run on juice from a remote generator producing 206 volts.
Batzdorff, owner of Sierra Orthopedic Laboratory on Montgomery Drive, kept a journal with entries that typically conclude, "OK, I am half asleep" or "So I am pretty exhausted now."
Team members slept on cots draped with mosquito netting in the open-air hallways of Port-au-Prince's Adventist Hospital, where the twin containers rested on fresh concrete pads.
It took three months for the containers to clear Haitian customs, delaying the project startup. But on arrival Oct. 11, Batzdorff's team was delighted to find both 8-by-20-foot containers sealed and the $75,000 worth of contents in perfect condition.
"Our first victory," he said.
The goal on this trip was not so much to begin crafting arms and legs for thousands of Haitian amputees, but to establish a permanent prosthetics operation that ultimately will be staffed and run by Haitians.
"Our main focus is sustainability," said Batzdorff, who founded the nonprofit agency ProsthetiKa five years ago and has organized similar missions in Turkey, Armenia, Lithuania, Russia, Bolivia and Mexico.
Accompanying him on the initial trip to Haiti were prosthetists Arnie Lund of Colfax and Karina Shelton of Watsonville, physical therapist Kim McLennan of San Francisco and Santa Rosa contractor Carl McGahan, who built the portable labs.
The first obstacle was getting water and power to the laboratory and adjusting to Haitian habits, such as workers due at 8 a.m. showing up at 2 p.m. "Everything happened late," Batzdorff said.
On Oct. 18, the team set up a clinic under an awning and began making casts and taking measurements for the first group of patients.
They also made forays in Port-au-Prince to make connections with other nonprofit groups, to restaurants for Prestige beer and chicken dinners and even to church.
The Port-au-Prince area, where 1 million people are living in tents, remains crippled by the Jan. 12 quake that killed about 200,000 people.
Walking the torn-up sidewalks and streets is hazardous, with junker cars and trucks weaving about, some driven without headlights at night. Pedestrian mishaps have created new amputees since the earthquake, Batzdorff said.
"The place is nowhere near rebuilt," he said, and numerous aid groups are leaving as their funding runs out. The damage exceeds Haiti's entire gross national product.
The cholera outbreak is growing, Batzdorff said, exacerbated by a shortage of clean drinking water. Daytime temperatures hit 100 degrees, punctuated by torrential downpours.
Amid the rubble and misery, Batzdorff said, he saw the beauty, colors and culture of the island nation that began as an African slave colony.
"People working, people playing and life continuing within and in spite of the physical destruction," he said. "It is a photographer's or poet's dream."
The prosthetics project is seeking $100,000 for patient services, technician training and materials. Donations may be made online at prosthetika.org or by sending a check to ProsthetiKa at 1275 Fourth St., No. 609, Santa Rosa, 95404.
You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.
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