Local specialist's mission to Haiti: 'Get up and walk'
BELLEVUE, Wash. - A Bellevue father of two simply doesn't have enough on his plate - so he's traveling the world helping people who need prosthetics.
David Kelly just got back from the Philippines, where he gave children and others a new chance at life.
And now he's off to Haiti to help many who survived that country's catastrophic earthquake last January learn how to live with missing limbs and other injuries.
"Haiti is a big project," says the prosthetics specialist. "Really, somebody like me isn't going to be much use in that first response with trauma. I'm more there for the long-term rehab. Now that the wounds are healed, people are ready to get up and continue with their lives."
Kelly lives in Bellevue but travels the world with Physicians For Peace, an international humanitarian nonprofit organization. He's been on eight missions with the group - each of them to the Philippines over the past five years.
But his mission in Haiti will be much different than his past missions to the Philippines.
"First thing, I think, is it's rather intimidating," he says. "You know - us coming in and flashing feet and other things at them. But once they actually get a chance to get up and walk and dance - or whatever they're going to do - it's a lot of fun."
Even before the magnitude 7 quake struck, Haiti had limited rehabilitation programs. Part of Kelly's mission is to teach locals long-term how to help each other through rehabilitation.
"It's a very large project, and I go in there understanding I'm a very small part, and others will continue it," Kelly says.
He expects 16-hour days and very little sleep in a country he's never traveled to - but is needed in more than ever.
Kelly says he and his wife waited until the children were at least in high school before he started his missions.
He leaves for Haiti on Sept. 18.
David Kelly just got back from the Philippines, where he gave children and others a new chance at life.
And now he's off to Haiti to help many who survived that country's catastrophic earthquake last January learn how to live with missing limbs and other injuries.
"Haiti is a big project," says the prosthetics specialist. "Really, somebody like me isn't going to be much use in that first response with trauma. I'm more there for the long-term rehab. Now that the wounds are healed, people are ready to get up and continue with their lives."
Kelly lives in Bellevue but travels the world with Physicians For Peace, an international humanitarian nonprofit organization. He's been on eight missions with the group - each of them to the Philippines over the past five years.
But his mission in Haiti will be much different than his past missions to the Philippines.
"First thing, I think, is it's rather intimidating," he says. "You know - us coming in and flashing feet and other things at them. But once they actually get a chance to get up and walk and dance - or whatever they're going to do - it's a lot of fun."
Even before the magnitude 7 quake struck, Haiti had limited rehabilitation programs. Part of Kelly's mission is to teach locals long-term how to help each other through rehabilitation.
"It's a very large project, and I go in there understanding I'm a very small part, and others will continue it," Kelly says.
He expects 16-hour days and very little sleep in a country he's never traveled to - but is needed in more than ever.
Kelly says he and his wife waited until the children were at least in high school before he started his missions.
He leaves for Haiti on Sept. 18.