Selian Special Services

The special services provided by Selian Lutheran Hospital includes surgery for crippled children. Many children in the community we serve are crippled and have no access to corrective surgery or rehabilitative care. Many are born with crippling deformities and many more become crippled through drinking water too high in fluoride. The more severe cases result in grossly bowed and painful legs.

At Selian, fluorosis is among the top five causes of crippling in children and some villages have as many as 20% of their children crippled by fluorosis.

The most severe cases of skeletal fluorosis are referred into Selian for corrective surgery. Selian surgeons together with Orthopedic Surgery volunteers operate on up to fifty of the most disabled children annually. The cost to the hospital is only $100 per child to restore these children to wholeness and allow many to walk again.

It is truly a remarkable ministry of healing and prevention. Children come into the hospital unable to walk and walk out under their own power. Communities crippled and demoralized by fluorosis undertake to seek solutions to their own situation. This Rotary Foundation Matching Grant will help to continue these wonderful acts of healing.