Rescuing Gilbert

It normally takes a month to build a full-leg prosthetic like the one 15- year-old Gilbert Lindor of Gentilhomme, Haiti received on Aug.11, 2009 in Windsor, Colo. Gilbert's leg was constructed in less than 36 hours.

It normally takes one-to-three months for an amputee to learn to walk after being fitted for a prosthetic. Gilbert walked without aid -- no parallel bars or crutches -- within the first hour of receiving his leg. Nothing short of a miracle.

But then, Gilbert Lindor's life is a walking miracle.

Missionary Miguel Ruben Guante was making a monthly visit to Gintelhomme on Aug. 17, 2007, when he asked the teacher Mathuren if the children were ready to return to school. Mathuren told Miguel that the best student was ill.

Miguel went to see 13-year-old Gilbert Lindor. To find him, Miguel needed only to follow his nose.

Gilbert had broken his leg while playing with a friend. He'd fallen in one of the many ravines surrounding the remote mountain village of Gentilhomme, which is located in southeastern Haiti not far from the border of the Dominican Republic. There was no medical care in Gentilhomme. The nearest clinic was an 18-mile walk away -- over two mountains. In Gentilhomme, the sick or injured often faced one of two options: get better without medical assistance or die.

The Lindor family prepared for the worst. Gilbert's father, John, dug his son a grave. He believe a voodoo curse had been placed on his family and there was no hope for Gilbert. Gilbert lay inside their home, his badly broken leg wrapped. He'd beeen there for 27 days. Death was on the doorstep as gangrene spread through his leg.

"All I remember is I cry very much when I thought I will die," Gilbert said in Creole. "I never thought I could be still living."

The odor from his leg was as gruesome as the sight of it.

"It's the first time I cried, " Miguel recalled on Aug. 10, 2009 at Quorum Orthopedics in Windsor, Colo., where Gilbert was receiving a prosthetic leg to replace the one he lost two years before. "I never cry. When I saw Gilbert, I cried. "I tried to pray for him. I could not pray because my eyes were filled."