Mannuela Sainterne practices walking on her new prosthetic leg with the help of physical therapist Mary Anne Kramer-Urner. Sainterne's right leg was amputated 22 years ago because of disease, but she's never been able to afford a prosthetic.

By JoNel Aleccia

DESCHAPELLES, Haiti -- For Mannuela Sainterne, the aftermath of Haiti's devastating earthquake may actually make her daily life better than before.

She's part of a small group of amputees injured before Jan. 12 who suddenly find themselves eligible for free limbs from aid workers who say they'll take all comers, regardless of the cause of their injury.

"How could you possibly say, 'You're not from the earthquake, so we won't help?'" said Jay Tew, the prosthetics expert running the new rehabilitation program at the Hopital Albert Schweitzer.

So far, they've treated patients who've also lost limbs to disease, violence and congenital abnormalities, all common causes of amputation.

Sainterne, a regal woman in a pink headscarf and purple dress, doesn't know her age, but guesses she might be 40. She lives in the mountains outside Deschapelles. She's been without a right leg for 22 years, ever since doctors at HAS had to amputate it above the knee to stave off a disease whose name she doesn't remember.

Since then, she's gotten by on rough wooden crutches now worn and scarred by years of use. This week, she was learning to walk on brand-new artificial leg supplemented by a pair of high-tech metal crutches.

"Before, you had to have money to get a leg," Sainterne said through a translator.

Soule Vertus lost his leg several years ago after being hit by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting in Port-au-Price. He never thought he'd get a prosthetic until a friend told him about the clinic at Hopital Albert Schweitzer providing free limbs and care for amputees.

Soule Vertus, 33, of Port-au-Prince lost his right leg above the knee in 2006, at the height of an outbreak of political violence.

He was fixing cell phones at a small stand in downtown Port-au-Prince when a bullet from a drive-by shooting shattered his leg, forcing doctors to amputate.

He never imagined he'd be able to get an artificial limb, but after the earthquake, a friend heard about the program at HAS and urged him to come. On Monday, he was measured and fitted for the new leg.

That won't solve every problem for Vertus, who is living in a tent city near Port-au-Prince.

But if there's an upside to the disaster, it's that new services will be available to people who were suffering even before Jan. 12, said Lucy Rawson, president of the fund-raising Friends of Hopital Albert Schweitzer. Her husband is Ian Rawson, the hospital's managing director.

"Things are bad, but there can be good around the edges," she said.