a daily work at Saphenability

During the 4 days in Tunis, things have to move quickly. There is not much time left from taking the amputee’s first measurements and removing the plaster cast to building the socket and the entire prosthesis. Once again, the art of improvisation is required. Is there a lack of sand in the orthopaedic workshop? Someone has already gone to a building site round the corner to get supplies. Cultural circumstances also need to be taken into account. What we are 100% sure will be delivered to the workshop as a spare part by the delivery service the next day may not work at all here. A good example: Our CTO Aaron urgently needed a 4mm allen key for his work, the tool of every orthopaedic technician, and he asked a local to organise one so that he could remove the socket from the prosthetic foot. No sooner said than done, the Tunisian came back three quarters of an hour later, beaming with joy as he showed that the problem had been solved. The socket and prosthesis are separated. ‘But where is the allen key, I need it day in, day out?’. ‘O…, and again two hours passed before the key was on site…