The History of ALTSO

"While in Indonesia a couple of years ago, I was eating dinner at a restaurant patio completely wiped out. I had just visited 4 countries in 2 days and spent hours fighting long lines at customs and lugging my baggage all over the place. In my exhaustion, I found myself thinking about how hard it had been since I left my job to be an entrepreneur and how I couldn't wait until the day I wouldn't have to go through all the physical struggles because I had to conserve money."

"Then I saw two young boys pulling a rope that was tied to the lid of a garbage can. The two boys were begging for money. On the lid, sitting sadly, was another young child who was being pulled. As I saw the little child go by, I noticed that his leg was severely deformed. I couldn't tell if it was a result of a birth defect or an injury, but it made me feel sick just looking at it. It was clear that the boy had been walking on his stubbed limb because it was raw and bleeding, and he couldn't stand on it any longer. I also noticed that the child's knuckles were in the same condition, which meant he had for a while been dragging himself around on the lid. I sat there paralyzed, but I couldn't look away. I just sat there and watched the three go by."

"I went up to my hotel room after dinner with a pit in my stomach and sat on my bed. While I was complaining to myself about how hard I had it with all the sacrifices that I had to make to start and run Octagon, (my then-new hedge fund), I failed to recognize how lucky I was to have my health. The personal sacrifices and physical hardships were the price that I had to pay in order to have the chance to have a better quality of life for me and my family, present and future."

"I then began to cry. I cried because I could only imagine the pain that that child has to go through every day, every minute, every second of his life. I cried because that child will never have the same opportunities that I have because of his leg. And I cried because I could have easily taken that child to a local hospital and for under a thousand dollars, which I could have charged on my credit card, given that child a new life...but I didn't."

It was in that moment Mr. C. Mead Welles considered working with an established charity, but he also wanted to make sure his money went to a cause that wasn't getting much attention. "My goal was to say, let's look at the universe of needs and what groups are catering to those needs, and see what is underserved. Children suffering with life-altering disabilities due to congenital limb deformity or amputation represented a large group in need of medical attention."

It wasn't much time after that Mr. Welles met Dr. Dinesh Patel at a social gathering and began to talk about starting an initiative to bring prosthetic care to children from underprivileged countries. Dr. Dinesh G. Patel, Chief of Arthroscopic Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Clinical Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School decided to put this initiative into play. He then approached Dr. Harold van Bosse, an attending pediatric orthopaedic surgeon at the Hospital for Joint Diseases and NYU Medical Center. Within a few years, A Leg To Stand On (ALTSO) was born.

A Leg To Stand On established its first clinic in Ahmedabad, India in 2003. Since then A Leg To Stand On has significantly expanded its reach through multiple partnerships in the developing world. In 2010, A Leg To Stand On partnered with 11 organizations in 9 of the world's most impoverished countries: India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Haiti. A Leg To Stand On is proud to have helped level the playing field for over 5,300 children in the developing world through the provision of corrective surgery, prosthetic and orthotic devices, and rehabilitative care. A Leg To Stand On has helped an estimated 10,000 children through its Fellowship Training Programs, which give in-country medical professionals the skills they need to become self-sustainable and better help their communities.

A Leg To Stand On helps bridge the gap between the developed and developing worlds by defining and implementing effective and sustainable projects that allow us to succeed in our mission of leveling the playing field for children with limb disabilities in the developing world.