Here's how a group of students are making a difference in the lives of amputees, Blessy Mathew Prasad finds out
Getting out of bed, taking the bus, or just walking to the store might seem too insignificant for most. But there are thousands who only dream of such independence. Freedom to walk, work and be independent should be a basic human right and that is what the 'Mukti Project' aims to give amputees and those affected by polio.
The MUKTI Project is organised by a team of students and staff from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde who work jointly with a charitable organisation ‘Mukti’ in Chennai. The Mukti project was initiated following a scoping exercise by Anthony McGarry, Kevin Murray and Ms Christine Donald in January 2012. The first visit of staff and students took place in August 2012.
An excerpt from an interview with Anthony McGarry and Kevin Murray
What kind of work do the students undertake, as part of the project?
The students engage in the treatment of amputees and people with polio who require prostheses or orthoses in order to return to work and provide for their families. In most cases these patients have been unable to receive treatment due to the difficulty in accessing Public or private prosthetic /orthotic services. The students and staff of the Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow are involved in the assessing patient requirements and along with Mukti staff manufacture low cost prostheses and orthoses. As a result of the types of devices supplied by Mukti this can involve quite physical work eg. draping hot plastic and using hammer and chisels to carry our basic repairs
What was the vision/idea behind this project?
The vision behind this project is to build a long term sustainable relationship with Mukti which involves exposing groups of students to the realities of providing low cost prosthetic and orthotic services. The hope is that through a partnership with Mukti we will be able to improve the quality of these services to the benefit of their patients.
How are the student volunteers selected?
All students throughout each of the 4 years of the undergraduate degree course in Prosthetics and Orthotics are asked to become involved in fundraising activities for Mukti. Eg. Running in 10k races, cycling, Dance nights, Mountain climbs etc. Funding for the trip is raised by student activities and charitable donations. The project has benefitted from extensive support by the University of Strathclyde Alumni. At the beginning of 4th year students can apply to go to Mukti. All applications are viewed by the Mukti committee and the 4-6 best applications are offered the opportunity places to make this life changing trip.
How would you rate the impact of the project on amputees and polio affected people?
In recent years the team of students and staff have concentrated in becoming familiar with the Mukti methods of providing prostheses and orthoses which are completely different from the high cost solutions available in the UK. We are now moving into a new stage of the project where we hope to see a slow increase in the provision of modular prostheses which can be assembled and maintained much quicker than the current ‘traditional’ approach. This would allow patients to be supplied and fitted quickly with higher quality devices with a greater range of function e.g. above-knee amputees could have knees that flex/extend while walking rather than the ‘traditional’ locked knee. In cases of polio it is important that every patient has a custom made orthosis which is a comfortable fit. We have plans to train Mukti staff in casting techniques to make this possible.
What impact has the project made on the students of Strathclyde University over the years?
Students throughout the University of Strathclyde are now fully aware of the Mukti Project. The Engineering Faculty’s ambassador for ‘Sustainable Engineering’ is Lady McDonald who has visited Mukti on a number of occasions and reference is often made to the work of Mukti by our Principal Sir Jim McDonald along with update reports in the Faculty ‘Insight’ magazine.
What was the focus area this year?
Tell us a bit about the work you did, including your visit to NIEPMD. The focus this year was the introduction of a low cost polycentric knee for above-knee amputees. The knee was provided as a result of our collaboration with the American company Drev which exists to close the quality healthcare gap for under served populations by designing and delivering medical technologies. The Strathclyde Mukti Project funded the remaining components to allow 4 patients for the first time to be fitted with ‘Free’ knees that bend while walking. Each year we take a short break from Mukti to visit NIEPD. We are always very well received by our hosts and the visit allows students to see the wide range of physical and mental disabilities that are treated by a dedicated team of staff. The excellent facilities at the National Institute are a credit to Chennai and show what can be done when resources are made available
What plans do you have for the coming years? Do you have plans to expand or improve on your services?
Over the coming years we hope to be able to work with Mukti to maintain their ‘Low Cost’ approach but also to improve the quality of patient care. Currently our funding will only allow time for one visit/year but during our next trip we hope to introduce recent developments in casting technologies to improve the consistency and quality of casts when taken by less experienced staff. We are already planning a joint mini-marathon Quote: Student Thomas Robertson says ‘Mukti for me was a life changing experience. When I was able to see at first hand the differences in treatment, the quality of the prostheses and orthoses, compared to what is freely available in the UK . I realised that I would like to work in parts of the world that could benefit from my training and expertise’.