TRAUMA HEALERS
A documentary featuring SIGN Fracture Care on PBS
Trauma Healers is a national public television documentary highlighting the need for trauma care in developing countries
Bonus Footage
You can watch Trauma Healers above or on PBS stations across the United States.
Check your local listings for PBS stations and air times in your area.
Learn more at traumahealers.org
The #SIGNsolution
SIGN Fracture Care partners with surgeons in low- and middle-income countries by providing orthopaedic education, then donating the instruments and implants they need to care for patients with broken legs and arms.
By providing a full-circle solution, including ongoing mentorship and a steady resupply of implants, SIGN equips surgeons to help injured people access orthopaedic surgery in the world’s poorest places.
Learn more about hospitals with SIGN Programs
Why Fracture Care?
More than 20 million people are injured in traffic accidents every year. Traffic accidents are the leading killer of young people (age 5-29) in the world. Increasing access to trauma care and orthopaedic surgery is critical in helping people recover from vehicle crashes, falls, and other trauma.
Without access to proper care, a person with a broken leg is at high risk of lifelong disability. If a family’s breadwinner is disabled, the whole family may be pushed into poverty for 3 generations, according to the World Bank.
SIGN Surgery helps someone with a fractured leg quickly get back on their feet and back to work. It makes a broken leg a temporary setback, rather than a lifelong disability.
How the #SIGNsolution works
SIGN Implants are inserted in the canal of a fractured bone and held in place with screws. This stabilizes the bone so it can heal in the proper alignment and provides support so the injured person can walk while the bone is healing.
SIGN’s orthopaedic instruments and implants don’t rely on expensive live-view x-ray machines, as commercially available implants do. Instead, SIGN’s Target Arm provides a physical guide for inserting the nail and screws and relies on the surgeon’s tactile sense. This enables surgery to stabilize a fractured bone to be performed in any operating room in the world, including those without electricity.
Learn more about the innovative SIGN Implants and Instruments
The SIGN Model
Education + Implants = Healing
By providing surgeons in developing countries with educational opportunities and the implants they need to put what they’ve learned into action, SIGN empowers local surgeons to provide healing surgery for injured and impoverished patients.
Education
SIGN provides conferences with hands-on training, monthly webinars, materials and training videos on The Hub, and feedback on each surgery submitted in the SIGN Surgical Database.
Implants
By donating the implants needed to stabilize and heal a fracture, we remove the financial barrier to accessing surgical care – one of the biggest challenges for people living below the global poverty line.
Healing
SIGN Surgery enables fast and effective healing. A patient can walk 1 day after surgery, leave the hospital within 1 week, and return to work in 1 month.
YOU CAN HELP
The road to healing starts with you. With your support, SIGN donates orthopaedic implants so that every person can afford the care they need to heal from a broken bone.
See how SIGN Surgery heals limbs and transforms lives
$150 provides the implants for 1 SIGN Surgery
Share about SIGN with your family and friends
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Questions about SIGN? Contact us or call 509.371.1107. You can also SIGN up to receive newsletters and updates