Help for amputees during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a trying time for a lot of people, including Houstonians with an amputated limb.

A local mobile company is helping fill-in the gap of closed doctor's offices, providing care in a patients' home or even their workplace.

We talked with Geomar "Geo" Marin, who is a patient advocate for inMotion Prosthetics. It's a natural fit for him to talk to patients, because he "gets" what they're going through.

"Since I became an amputee, it changed my life, you become more human, you now see the problems, you have a different view of bad things that happen to others," says Geo.

Geo was a professional baseball player in Venezuela, when his career was cut short by a tragic accident that not only took his leg, but almost his life.

"I wasn't conscious for a week, so I didn't know that my leg was amputated. So when I woke up one morning, I just realized that I didn't have a leg. I literally asked everybody out of hospital room. I started screaming. After that, just started thinking about what I'm going to do now," says Geo.

He was able to figure it out! He got married, had two children, and moved to the U.S.  He was working as a bartender, when the CEO of inMotion Prosthetics invited him to work for them. Now his colleagues say, Geo's advice is powerful to their patients.

"It's really helpful. A lot of times, people need someone to lean on and to understand what they're going through. Because I might not understand all the issues that they deal with on a day-to-day basis, it helps me educate myself and more of our patients in the future when I can sympathize, because I have a friend who goes through this every day," explains Alayna Cruz, Manager of inMotion Prosthetics.

inMotion Prosthetics uses cutting-edge technology to help them build a prosthesis in record time.

"We use really innovative new technology such as a 3D scanner, where we can actually scan a patient's residual limb and get a perfect 3D copy and make their prosthetic from that copy to get a custom perfect fit. Lastly, we do all of our own fabrication, so instead of sending off that copy that we make from the scanner to somewhere in let's say Ohio, and it taking two weeks, we can actually just take it back to our office, make the copy, and take it to test that patient later in the week," explains Alayna.

She says since they're a mobile company, they can easily go to a patients' home or workplace, and do it safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, following the CDC's recommended guidelines.

"I think the biggest challenge is just getting the care that they need because they're worried about going into an office with 10 plus patients, and that would be social distancing obviously. But that's the benefit of our company! We're able to go directly to them, we coordinate with their doctor's office to get the referrals and any documentation that they may need, so it's no sweat for them. We're able to take care of everything," states Alayna.

inMotion Prosthetics is working with several charities and foundations to help anyone without the means to cover their prosthetic expenses right now. They're also not charging for a consult fee during the pandemic.

For more information visit http://www.inmotionprosthetics.com