18 months, 350 amputees: A journey to life from darkness

After completion of 18 months, the Amputee Management Group at PGI has made great strides in the management and rehabilitation of patients with Amputation. Since inception, the PGI have registered more than 350 amputees and for all these patients, their endeavor has been to create a paradigm shift from providing “survival of amputee” to giving “life to amputees”. “It is hugely satisfying that we could make a visible difference to their lives through a focused approach and holistic care under our initiative of AMPUTEE Care Clinic,” stated Prof M.S. Dhillon, Head, Deptt. of Orthopedics, PGIMER while sharing the progress made under AMPUTEE Care Clinic here at PGIMER today.
Prof. Dhillon stated, “With our belief that the management of these cases does not end with the amputation surgery but requires the involvement of various specialists to cater to the social, emotional, and psychological problems, as well as requiring vocational counseling and social support for full rehabilitation into society as a functional member, a comprehensive Amputee care Clinic came into being in February 2021 by roping in specialists from the various facet of medicine.”
“We started our journey to provide wholesome and holistic care to patients with amputation with the above aims in mind. Over the last 18 months the “PGI Amputee Clinic” has evolved into a one-of-a-kind specialized clinic involving faculty members from the departments of Orthopaedics, PMR (Physical and Medical Rehabilitation), Psychiatry, Occupational therapy, Physiotherapy, Nursing care, and Prosthetists, all working as a cohesive unit to help the patients to return to the society as a healthy individual with satisfactory physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing,” added Prof. Dhillon while taking the audience through the experience of 18 months.
Prof. Dhillon while paying gratitude to the philanthropist who made this mission possible highlighted, “Since its inception, we have registered more than 350 amputees. Most of them had to undergo amputations due to roadside accidents or railway track injuries; however, a few had undergone amputation due to cancer or congenital deformities. As more than 85% of our patients are male and the majority of them are in the peak productive years of their life (25-50 years), the loss of limb becomes not only a personal loss but also a financial loss to the family especially when it loses the services of its sole bread earner. More than 90% of the patients belong to low to middle socioeconomic strata and the majority of them have no social security or insurance.”
Endorsing the need for community engagement to take forward the initiative, Prof. Dhillon elaborated, “With the support of the PGI and some philanthropic Industrials, we are happy to inform that PGI has started to fabricate “in-house prosthesis“(artificial limbs) at our prosthetic center, which is a big move forward as patients do not spend huge amounts for procurement of prosthesis from outside agencies.”