A group of Icelanders, including chairman of the Iceland-Palestine Association Sveinn Rúnar Hauksson and prosthetics designer Össur Kristinsson, are currently in the Gaza Strip in Palestine, to provide people who have lost their legs with artificial limbs.
Yesterday, 25-year-old Hosni Talal, who had lost both his legs, was finally able to walk again. He had been one-legged for four years until he lost his other leg in a tank attack last January. Kristinsson and his team had made artificial legs for Talal in about one and a half hours, and half an hour later he was on his feet, training with a physical therapist, mbl.is reports.
Hauksson said Talal and his family had been so grateful that they had immediately invited the Icelandic prosthetics team home for a celebration. “The entire family and the neighbors were very surprised when they saw Hosni make it home on a walker.”
Hauksson explained that it had been a coincidence that Talal was provided with artificial legs yesterday because he was on a waiting list and should have waited for another year. “He dropped by the center unexpectedly with some enquiries and left walking.”
The team will continue to donate artificial limbs to amputees in the coming days. Hauksson said destruction and poverty faces everyone who comes to Gaza and that it is incredible how positive the locals remain, making an effort to lead a normal life despite horrible circumstances.
The artificial limbs are a donation from the Iceland-Palestine Association and the prosthetics designers and other team members donate their work. Össur Kristinsson is the founder of internationally successful prosthetic company Össur.
