Starting out as a receptionist, Bernadette
worked her way into the business from
there. Her former husband also worked
in that office and, by their early 20s, the
two of them were managing the business
after her father-in-law retired.
After acquiring the requisite skills
needed for her chosen profession,
Bernadette began a journey that took her
from Los Angeles to Eugene, Oregon and
Long Island, New York before finally, in
1991, returning to the New Orleans area
where she had spent the first eleven years
of her life. As she explained, “A job opportunity
came up in New Orleans and I took
it. I never planned to come back here but
after visiting as an adult I got the Mardi
Gras fever and it just felt like home.”
For several years after her return, she
worked for two prosthetic-orthotic companies,
further sharpening her skills until
she felt confident enough to go into her
own business. With two of her cousins,
Kathy Adam and Peggie F. Jones, BOCCP,
Bernadette started Douroux Prosthetic-
Orthotic Services. As business partners
they rented space in a doctor’s office on
Holmes Boulevard in Terrytown. In just
eight months they moved to their own
office in Terrytown and this year marks
their 20-year anniversary at the current
Terry Parkway location.
A second location was set up in
Destrehan to serve the River Parishes
area and that became her base of operations
after Hurricane Katrina when
access to the West Bank was restricted
and phone service was down. “After my
cell phone came back on, the calls started
coming in asking if I was still in business,”
Bernadette said. “I told them I was and
I ran the business out of Destrehan for a
couple of years afterward. I had to do a lot
of home visits and visits to physical therapy
facilities because people weren’t going
to come all the way out to Destrehan.”
She later shut down the second office
and now works exclusively in Terrytown.
On a recent visit to her facility,
Bernadette detailed the mechanics
behind the fittings she does with the
artificial limbs and how the pieces are
structured. It is a painstaking process
requiring exacting attention to detail and
constant adjustments in the early weeks
of the fitting stages. In a side room of
her office, there is a set of parallel bars
which, she explained, are there to help
her patients test and adjust to the use of
the replacement limb.
“I have to train the patient how to
use the prosthesis initially,” Bernadette
explained. “I don’t just hand them a limb
and say ‘Go to the physical therapist.’ I
teach them how to use the foot or the
ankle or, if it’s above the knee, I teach
them how to make the knee work. So I
go through the initial training with them
and the follow-up care is with a physical
therapist.”
The components, such as feet, knees
and titanium parts are ordered from
companies that manufacture these
highly technical parts. “The technology
of feet and knees have come a long way
from the basic feet and knees of the
past,” Bernadette said. “The advanced
improvements are major factors in allowing
amputees to reach full rehabilitation.”
However, the sockets into which the parts
fit are custom made for each patient by
taking a mold of their residual limb with
plaster bandages. All fabrication is done
onsite in the lab, she added.
Bernadette also services those who
need arm replacements where advances
in technology have made it possible for
people to manually and digitally manipulate
elbows and fingers. Women needing
breast refittings following mastectomies
can also have the work done in her office.
All of the prosthetic/orthotic devices
are covered by Medicare/Medicaid
and private insurance.
Discussing her family’s musical
legacy, Bernadette pointed
proudly to online photo reproductions
and articles about
the celebrated musicians who
were either direct descendants
of hers or descendants
by marriage. In the early 1900s,
her grandfather, Louis Douroux,
played cornet, and his sons Lawrence
(Bernadette’s father) and Irving were also
musicians.
Bernadette’s aunt, Dolly (Douroux)
Adams, was a notable figure in the early
history of jazz, making a name for herself
on piano and several other instruments.
While performing with her uncle, Manuel
Manetta’s band, she sat in with such greats
as Louis Armstrong, King Oliver and Kid
Ory. She later married Placide Adams Sr.
and three of their five sons, Gerald, Justin
and Placide Jr., also pursued successful
musical careers.
Placide Adams Jr., a bassist, was the
most famous of the three, touring in
the 1950s with Chuck Berry, Clyde
McPhatter, BB King and other R&R/R&B
stars. He later performed traditional jazz
with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band
and renowned clarinetist George Lewis.
Manetta, who taught piano to Bernadette,
achieved his greatest fame as a teacher for
many of New Orleans’ top jazz musicians.
“I could have gone into music myself
but I just didn’t have that ‘It Factor,’”
Bernadette recalled. “I could read and
play music but I couldn’t ad lib like the
jazz players. I couldn’t play by ear the way
they did.”
As a result, thousands of people whom
Bernadette has helped over the years can
rejoice that things worked out for her the
way they did.
To learn more about Douroux
Prosthetic-Orthotic Services, LLC call
(504) 368-1477 or (504) 915-1234.
Email orthowoman@gmail.com.
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