Travis' Story

During the first CHORES project to Grenada in the summer of 1989 we first encountered to Travis Banfield. Travis was four months old at the time and was admitted on Norton’s Ward (the children’s ward) at the General Hospital in Saint Georges, Grenada. Travis had recently sustained a 40% total body surface area burn in a house fire. This unfortunate accident resulted in severe third degree burns to the left side of his body resulting in the above the knee amputation of his left leg and a fixed deformity of his left arm. Travis was well cared for by the diligent physicians and nurses at the hospital and against stiff odds he survived his initial burn without further complications.

We were able to see Travis during each CHORES project as he and his mother came to receive physical therapy. CHORES provided physical therapy and Travis received a number of surgical procedures to attempt of limit the degree of burn scar contracture that routinely develop following severe thermal injuries. We saw Travis develop from infant to child with his own determined personality - determined to walk. Travis was first fitted with a specially modified walker in which he was able to move himself around with his one good leg. This ability to move independently brought out Travis’s personality and further strengthened his resolve to walk.

When Travis was three he was fitted with crutches, which despite the fixed position of his left arm, dramatically increased his autonomy and mobility. We became used to seeing Travis come to the hospital to see the physical therapists and surgeons moving as well as he could on his crutches. Finally when Travis was six years old, CHORES was fortunate enough to have a prosthesist accompany the semi-annual project and this individual was able to fashion a prosthetic leg for Travis.

Sliding the artificial leg over his stump and initially using the crutches, Travis moved cautiously then more confidentially around the hospital. Then with a crowd of CHORES personal encouraging him, Travis tentatively let us take his crutches and hold his hands. Holding tightly to the therapist Travis stepped on his new leg. Holding on, Travis was able to move gingerly forward. It was hard work lifting t this unfamiliar appendage and Travis tired and needed a rest. After a short respite and with more self confidence, Travis stood and held on for a moment, then dropping the hands that were helping support him, he began to take the first tentative steps he had ever taken on his own. Steps on a path to self reliance and confidence. Steps that most of us take for granted...

...But not Travis.