29568: Hermantin(News)Young Haitian man who lost right arm needs prosthetic to find wor (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Sun, Nov. 26, 2006


SOUTH FLORIDA'S NEEDIEST
Young Haitian man who lost right arm needs prosthetic to find work

BY AMY DRISCOLL
adriscoll@MiamiHerald.com

Mercius Occius pulled up his orange T-shirt on one side, revealing a scarred 
torso and a lump where his right arm should be.

He doesn't flinch when people look at the injury. At 21, he's lived with it 
since he was a year old, when an accidental fire burned down his family's home 
in Haiti, searing the right side of his chest, destroying his ear and requiring 
amputation of his arm.

Stares and averted eyes are something Occius learned to cope with a long time 
ago.

But these days, the scars represent a rare commodity in the life of a poor 
young man from Haiti: hope. Through the help of near-strangers, Occius has 
begun a series of operations that will allow a plastic surgeon to repair some 
of the facial damage. Perhaps even more important, the surgeries and grafts 
will free the top few inches of his arm bone, now imprisoned beneath scar 
tissue. Once a stump has been created, he'll be able to use a prosthetic arm 
for the first time.

''I never thought in life this could happen to me,'' Occius said recently, 
through a French-speaking interpreter. ``Now I will look normal.''

Aid has come to Occius in a variety of surprising forms and with a speed that 
has left him a bit dazed by his sudden change in fortunes.

A Canadian businesswoman met him in Haiti and arranged to bring him to Florida 
for the surgeries in September. She contacted a Fort Lauderdale plastic surgeon 
and his partner, who had previously helped another burn victim. They agreed to 
provide operations and aftercare for free -- services that would normally cost 
tens of thousands of dollars. They're also housing the young man for the year 
or longer the process will take, and they've enrolled him in English classes at 
a local high school.

All Occius needs to complete his life-changing experience is the prosthetic arm 
itself.

$5,000 -- OR MORE

That is not a small thing to hope for. Prosthetic arms can run from $5,000 for 
the most basic kind to 10 times that, or more, for a high-tech version with a 
life-like hand, according to preliminary research done by his new benefactors.

For Occius, a prosthetic arm and an improved face are the difference between a 
whole life and half a life. He believes the changes will help him find a good 
job when he returns to Haiti. He doesn't even care what kind of job.

''Any kind,'' he said, still a bit wide-eyed at the prospect. ``Any kind.''

He has come a long way already. When businesswoman Rachel Friedman stepped into 
his life earlier this year, he was getting by on tip money he earned directing 
cars into parking places at a busy grocery store in Port-au-Prince.

COMPUTER CLASSES

> From his small earnings, he sent money to his parents in Port-de-Paix and 
gave some to the aunt and cousin he lived with. Whatever he had left went 
toward the computer classes that he thought offered one of his few 
opportunities for a better job.

''His spirit just shined through. He never complained, never had a bad word to 
say -- even with everything he had to bear,'' said Friedman, who has worked in 
Haiti in the textiles business for 25 years. ``I told him I'd help him, 
somehow. But I had no idea what I was going to do.''

PLASTIC SURGEON

Then she read a Miami Herald story about a burn victim who had been helped by 
Fort Lauderdale plastic surgeon Russell Sassani, and his partner, Michael 
Schneider. Friedman contacted them to see whether Occius could be helped with 
surgery. In September, Friedman brought Occius to Florida.

Sassani already has implanted balloon-like skin expanders under the skin on 
Occius' right side and another beneath his scalp. Saline solution gradually 
will be injected into the balloons, stretching the skin.

Once enough new skin is created, Sassani will graft it to replace scar tissue 
and to form a stump around the section of arm bone in his right shoulder.

`GREAT SPIRIT'

The best prosthetic arm for Occius probably wouldn't be the most expensive, 
Sassani and Schneider both said. Durability and functionality are more 
important than cutting edge technology in this case. If repairs are needed in 
Haiti, the simpler, the better.

''Mercius has a great spirit,'' Schneider said. ``He loves life, and he's very 
motivated to have the operations. He just needs help getting the arm.''

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