COAN Footprints Program
COAN has accomplished a great deal in the last several years. Healthcare in León and the Northwest corner of Nicaragua has benefited greatly. Local Doctors are now more capable of teaching one another and solving problems on their own. Improved technologies, supplies and equipment have resulted in better orthopaedic surgeries and far better patient care.
COAN established its Footprints Program in honor and in the memory of Dr. Ralph Gertsch. He was an Anesthesiologist with Critical Health Systems and dedicated his life to reaching out to help the poverty stricken people of Central and South America. During our October 2006 trip to León, Dr. Gertsch was also honored by our Nicaraguan friends by naming the orthopaedic ward at the HEODORA Hospital in his memory.
Not mere marks in the sand, COAN footprints will represent locations designated to uplift the nation's healthcare. COAN now has requests from hospitals all over Nicaragua, located in regions far from León, to help in their efforts to deliver modern orthopaedics to the people of their region. In order to change the healthcare of a nation, COAN is branching out of its sole “footprint” in León, Nicaragua. COAN's Footprints Program will bring much needed upgrades to healthcare across the nation of Nicaragua.