KATV Channel 7 - The Spirit of Arkansas: Arkansans Help Honduran Get New Arm

A young Honduran man now has a new lease on life thanks to the generosity of a Little Rock congregation, a local surgeon, and a local company that fitted him with a new arm among others.

Saturday  the 26-year-old  who is grateful for the help he has found here in the Natural State got to try out his new limb.

Picking things up is something Jesus Garcia hasn't been able to do for the past six years.  A tragic train accident in Honduras left him without his arms but Saturday his world remarkably improved.

Jesus Garcia said, "It feels goo. Thank the Lord…The last six years I have spent very sad…Sometimes there were moments I thought about taking my own life."

A ray of hope came when Sandee Haslauer with Christ the King Catholic Church found out about Garcia and went to see him in Honduras. She made arrangements for him to go the church's mission when surgeons would be there last summer.

Haslauer said, "Our orthopedic surgeon Laurie Hughes saw Jesus and immediately got on the phone to see if Mike Horton would be interested in providing a prosthesis for Jesus."

That got the ball rolling, but they soon determined Garcia would have to travel to Arkansas to be fitted for his new arm and without a birth certificate getting him a visa was a challenge.  When they finally got through the red tape a Christ the King family donated frequent flier miles for Garcia and his caretaker, Dean Martin, to get here and the Little Rock Diocese pitched in to help fund the trip.  Another family from the church opened up their home giving a place to stay for the two weeks they are in town.  Horton's Orthotics and Prosthetics donated the new limb and about 30 hours of labor to make it, a nearly $10,000  donation.  It's a small price Mike Horton says to be able to share his skills with a young man who otherwise wouldn't have access to a new arm.

Mike Horton said, "It's extremely rewarding because it's such a life changing opportunity for him because he literally can't even brush his own teeth. He can't go to the restroom by himself. Now he can do that."

Haslauer said, "So it takes a village, all of us together made it possible for Jesus to come here and get this life changing prosthesis for himself."

Horton says they are only fitting him with one arm because it would be too cumbersome for Garcia to have a second prosthesis because of where the other arm was amputated.   He will spend the next few weeks in therapy at Physical Therapy Institute of Little Rock learning to use his new arm before returning to Honduras.

You can watch the story Saturday night on the 10 o'clock news.