Lincoln Park amputee is an extreme competitor

Rock climbing contest athlete's latest challenge
By Tehani Schneider • Gannett New Jersey • July 19, 2008

LINCOLN PARK —Brooke Artesi took up rock climbing last winter, tackling the various climbs at New Jersey Rock Gym in Fairfield after becoming a certified belayer.


Scaling 30-foot walls can be tricky, but Artesi, of Lincoln Park, is careful to navigate the artificial hand and footholds. And pressure under her right shoe is a telltale sign that her prosthetic foot has found its mark.

"With a harder route, the (rocks) are smaller and farther apart," said Artesi, 29. "It happens sometimes that I can't do it and I slip off."

But the Rockaway native has committed to climbing a few hours a week in preparation for her first Extremity Games -- an extreme amateur athletic competition for amputees or individuals with limb disabilities.

The event will begin on Thursday in Michigan, and Artesi will compete in the top rope rock climbing competition in Pontiac on Friday. Top rope uses a belayer, or the person holding the rope, to secure a climber.

"Hopefully I'll do well, but I want to have a good time and have it be a learning experience, too," Artesi said.

"There are no other amputees at the gym, so I don't know what to expect ... Maybe next year it'll be different and I'll push (my competitive edge) up."

Artesi, who was 15 when she lost her right leg below the knee in a train accident in Morristown, learned of the Extremity Games through her employer, Garden State Orthopaedics.

Eager to meet amputees from across the country, Artesi -- who has worked as an orthotist, fitting patients with braces for the past six years -- booked her trip and began a regular schedule at the Fairfield gym with her husband, Steven Pezzetta.

Garden State, which has offices in Oakland and Morristown, is sponsoring her trip to the Midwest.

"I really wanted to go," she said. "I had just heard wonderful things from people, colleagues who've been there. You meet so many other people, amputees, people my own age. Working here, I meet a lot of amputees, but they're not always my own age."

The Extremity Games, which is similar to the X Games, was created in 2006 in Orlando, Fla., by College Park Industries, a manufacturer of prosthetic feet, said Beth Geno, the Games' development manager.

Competitors from the United States, England, Germany and Holland vie for gold, silver and bronze medals, as well as prizes and money in many sports, categories and styles, Geno said.

Instructional clinics for newcomers also are held, along with an interactive exhibit area and featured demonstration sports, she said.

Approximately 120 athletes are expected to participate this year, and rock climbing and kayaking are the top two sports for participants, she said.

"We see many new faces, as well as many returning athletes," Geno said.

While the Extremity Games will be Artesi's first challenge in rock climbing, it won't be her first venture into competitive sports. She has participated in various 5K and 10K races as a runner, and taken up tennis and swimming over the past few years.

With running, Artesi dons a Flex-Run, a prosthesis specifically designed for the task. Swimming requires a waterproof prosthesis, but rock climbing allows her to use an everyday prosthesis protected by her climbing shoe.

"I have a whole bunch of different legs," Artesi quipped. "All you really want for the rock climbing is to have a stiff toe."

Artesi will be joined and cheered on in Michigan by Sharon Andrews, her prosthetist for the past five years and her co-worker at Garden State Orthopaedics.

"I'm really, really excited," said Andrews. "I think it's going to be awesome just to see her climbing up the wall. Even if she just doesn't win, it's just a big statement to be able to go."

Andrews and Louis Haberman, Artesi's first prosthetist, have ensured that the suction socket of Artesi's prosthesis fits properly over her stump throughout her training.

On average, amputees receive new prostheses every few years because of changes to the residual limb with weight loss or gain, Andrews said. With an athlete like Artesi, prosthesis maintenance is key to her training and performance, she said.

"She needs to maintain the way the socket fits, since her limb is always in flux," Andrews said. "Some days (her limb) can be a little bit bigger than other days ... I often have to tell Brooke to take it easy because she'll work through if something's bothering her."

Artesi's dogged determination is a trait that Haberman, a Denville resident, recalled seeing when he first treated her two weeks after she lost her leg.

A sophomore at Morris Knolls High School in fall 1994, Artesi was boarding a train stopped at the Morristown station on Oct. 23. The train began moving and crushed her right ankle beyond reconstruction, requiring her leg to be amputated below the knee.

Haberman remembered the younger Artesi as an adolescent who demanded her first prosthesis match her colorful platform shoes. Now, she has become a skilled co-worker whose desire to learn about prostheses has manifested into an adult passion for the field, he said. Artesi plans on returning to school in the fall to become a certified prosthetist.

"She went from a defiant teenager with 4-inch multi-colored shoe lifts and orange hair to a demure young woman with professional training and great care for her patients," Haberman said.

"She's just a remarkable lady. She's overcome a lot of hardship and difficulty to achieve success."

Many amputees, Haberman said, receive their prosthesis and attempt to resume their lives to the best of their abilities.

"A lot (of amputees) do not choose the route that (Artesi) has chosen -- to go further and do more. I can't respond to what the motivation is, other than the desire to achieve, overcome and excel," he said. "This is just who she is."

For Artesi, competing at the Extremity Games and taking part in sports, in general, are motivating techniques for her own patients.

"I'm a good role model for our patients to stay active," she said. "They see me and know they can do things, too."

Scout Bassett: Succeeding in Life, One Step at a Time

Kids often ask Scout Bassett, of Palm Desert, California, if she wishes she had two normal legs. Bassett, 18, answers, “No. I have never known anything different, and it would seem weird to me. Besides, if it weren't for the missing leg, I wouldn't have the opportunities I have today!"

What she means is she has learned important lessons about overcoming big challenges to reach your goals. “When you are missing a leg, it teaches you to appreciate little things—like being able to walk and run," she says.

Scout has faced big challenges. Born in China, she was left at an orphanage before her first birthday suffering from terrible burns. Her right leg was especially damaged, and doctors amputated it above the knee.

She remembers being hungry all the time at the orphanage. As soon as she was old enough to get around, she was put to work mopping floors, feeding babies, and washing dishes.

And she had to do all that with an artificial leg that didn't work very well. “It was made of things you'd find in your garage," she recalls. “Belt straps, masking tape, nuts and bolts. It didn't feel very good, and clanked, and even fell off sometimes."

Then, when she was seven years old, a family in Michigan adopted her. Everything about her new life in the United States was better, including the improved artificial legs her parents got for her.

First she got a better leg for everyday activities. It was okay for some things, but she still couldn't play soccer or basketball.

When she was 14, she got a high-tech leg made for sports and put it to the test right away in a race for disabled athletes. “I remember being terrified because this was my first time," she says. “But my doctor said, ‘You have to start somewhere.'"

Scout was waiting nervously for the race to start when athlete Sarah Reinertsen came up and said, “I've been doing this for a while. Let me give you some tips."

Reinertsen, who lost her leg when she was seven, is the first woman amputee to finish the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii. In the 2005 race, she swam 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers) in the ocean, biked 112 miles (180 kilometers), and ran 26 miles (42 kilometers). She works with an organization called the Challenged Athletes Foundation to help support people like Scout.

Reinertsen's encouragement changed the teenager's life. She lost that first race, but gained the confidence that she needed to compete. If Sarah could do it, she could too.

Training hard, she improved her strength and skill step by step. She even took up golf and tennis, and by high school, she'd gotten good enough to be on the varsity teams.

Now living in California, Scout runs competitively and also finds time to share her story with school groups.

“There are days when I study until 1 a.m. and get up at five to swim and train, and it is tough," she explains. But she has a motto that keeps her going: “The task ahead of you is never greater than the strength inside you."

“Sometimes people look at someone like me or at Sarah and think they have nothing in common with us. I tell them that even if you aren't physically challenged, everybody has challenges of some kind—maybe with family, or homework, or friends."

“No matter what it is, you can overcome that obstacle," she says. “Everything you need is inside your heart. Take small steps. As time goes by, the steps will get bigger and you will reach your dream."

Amputee's breakdance showdown!

I am simply amazed at the incredible determination of individuals that show total committment to living thier lives to the fullest. When you create a vision for yourself no matter what the obstacles or challenges, you are able to create miracles that make a difference for yourself and everyone else thats looking for a little hope. Thank you to all of you who dare to be dreamers who make it a reality!

PCE.

Amputees Get Mirrored Relief at Walter Reed

posted 2:59 pm Tue June 17, 2008 - WASHINGTON


Doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center have found a new tool to help amputee patients lose what they call "phantom pain".

Every night Army Sergeant Dale Cherney feels the sensation of sharp pins where his right foot used to be. "There's a stabbing pain or spiking pain that goes from one to seven on a scale of 10, that's not fun."

Cherney lost his leg in Iraq (webnews) last fall and his phantom pain began immediately. Recently doctors at Walter Reed started him on a new treatment using a full-length mirror. It's placed between his legs so when dale looks down, it looks like he still has both limbs. Every day for 15 minutes, he looks at the reflected image of his intact foot while trying to move his amputated foot.

"When they see the limb moving and they try to move it, vision seems to be overriding any mixed signals that the brain is getting," said Associate Professor on Neurology, USUHS, Dr. Jack Tsao.

Every patient using the mirror therapy in clinical trials at Walter Reed have had reductions in phantom pain.

"So, not only is the therapy inexpensive, we're able to save money and get people off medicine they don't need to take," said Dr. Tsao.

Army Sergeant Nicholas Paupore saw results within a week. Before that, he'd suffered from phantom pain every single day. "It would rush from where my toes would be all the way up the back of my leg," he said, "from back of leg all the way down to missing foot."

Now, Paupore is off his medications and has very rarely experienced phantom pain. "It's a process you have to go through, if you're dedicated it does work."

Army Sergeant Dale Cherney hopes it will stop his phantom pain as well. "I'm willing to do anything, if it works, I'll do it."

Mirror therapy is also being used for arm amputees at Walter Reed. In addition, a clinical trial is underway for double-leg amputees who use another person's let to visualize their missing limbs.

Paralympian April Holmes Transforms Tragedy into Triumph

By CHICO C. NORWOOD

April Holmes
On a cold, wintry January day in 2001, April Holmes’ life changed in the blink of an eye. One moment she was standing with her boyfriend on a train platform in Philadelphia waiting for a train to New York. The next minute she found herself lying underneath the 500-ton steel behemoth. Holmes has no memory of how she got there.

“I was on the platform trying to get on the train and before I knew it I was underneath the platform with the train actually resting on my leg. I do remember I was the last person to attempt to board the train. I remember it took them a few times to actually lift the train up and when that didn’t work then they tried to just back the train up,” she said. “I don’t know what happened. I just slipped on something and was underneath the platform and the train was on my leg.”

The next thing the Somerfield, N.J., native remembers is waking up in the hospital with the physician telling her that her left leg had been amputated below the knee.

A former high school track standout as a 400-meter state champion and collegiate All-American,

Holmes says the news that she had lost part of one of her legs was jolting.

“It was very difficult. I didn’t know anyone who had had their leg amputated. I didn’t know what life entailed for someone missing a limb. I remember loving track and basketball and one of the first things I said when I found out my leg had been amputated was ‘I’ll never be able to run or play basketball again,’” Holmes said.


The Bible says all things work together for good, and in the case of April Holmes, who says it was through a strong faith in God that she was able to endure, all things have worked for good.

Several days after her the operation to remove her leg, the doctor who performed the surgery gave Holmes several magazines about the Paralympic Games, a multi-sport event for athletes with physical, mental and sensorial disabilities, including mobility disabilities, amputees, visual disabilities and those with cerebral palsy.

“At first I thought he was crazy because I didn’t know anything about the Paralympics,” she said of the competition that is held every four years, following the Olympic Games, and is governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

After a few conversations with the doctor and her sister, Holmes dared to dream. Two months after the accident, she received her walking leg. By April 2001, she was jogging on a treadmill. In April 2002, she entered her first Paralympic track and field competition.

Today, Holmes is the world’s fastest female amputee. She holds world records (women’s T44 classification) in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter dashes. In the 2006 U.S. Paralympics Track and Field National Championships in Atlanta, she shattered her own world records in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. At the 2006 IPC World Championships in Assen, Netherlands, Holmes put in gold winning performances in the 100-meter and 200-meter races. At the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, she brought home a bronze medal as she broke the American record for the long jump. This year she will represent the United States from Sept. 6-17 at the Paralympic Games in Beijing, China, where she is favored to bring home the gold.

Holmes’ track and field exploits have landed her a lucrative contract with basketball great Michael Jordan’s Jordan Brand, a division of NIKE Inc., because the brand touts itself as being “synonymous with style, grace, athleticism, and defying the odds of greatness and abilities.” Holmes, reportedly, is the first woman to be signed to the high-profile label that also boasts such stars as Utah Jazz forward Carmelo Anthony, the Boston Celtics’ Ray Allen, N. Y. Yankee Derek Jeter, Dallas Cowboys’ Terrell Owens, and the New Orleans Hornets’ Chris Paul.

Her performance on the field has also translated into celebrity off the field for the self-proclaimed loner. Holmes travels around the country sharing her life-changing experience with children, other amputees and soldiers returning from war.

“I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to be able to touch people’s lives and that to me is one of the most important things you can do in life. I appreciate the opportunity that I can go out and speak to kids, and go to hospitals to speak to people who have lost a limb. Also, there are a lot of war veterans who are coming back and have lost a limb. To be able to impart to them that there is life after amputation, that is the great thing I have been able to do,” she said.

Holmes was this year’s national spokesperson for Disability Insurance Awareness Month, which was held in May. According to the April Holmes Web site:

• 54 million Americans are physically disabled

• One of four children do not participate in elementary or secondary physical education programs

• 143 million Americans are family members of persons with disabilities

• 66 percent of Americans are disabled for more than six months of their life

• 3,000 people daily become amputees.

In response to these statistics, Holmes has established the April Holmes Foundation “to assist disabled individuals to reach their goals by encouraging them to rise above any obstacles that will give them an opportunity to develop to their full potential; thus, realizing that the opportunity of a challenge is rewarded with success.”

The foundation is currently holding an essay contest for the disabled. Participants should write a 230-word essay in response to the following question as it pertains to their level of disability: “If your Jordan shoes could talk the moment you put them on, what would they say about you? Where would they take you? Who would you inspire? What story would you tell?” The contest ends June 23.

What advice does Holmes offer, not just to the disabled, but to everyone?

“Keep dreaming and keep living. Everyone falls down at one time in your life, no matter where you are in life. No matter how much money you have, no matter where you came from, you fall down in life. And sometimes it can be a physical fall down and sometimes it can be a mental fall down. If you keep dreaming and keep faith, good things will happen to you,” she said.

For more information about April Holmes and her life-changing journey, the April Holmes Foundation and the essay contest, visit www.aprilholmes.com.

Amputees leave Tustin for cross-country bike ride

Four riders, all with at least one leg amputated, set off this morning toward New Jersey.
By ELYSSE JAMES
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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TUSTIN – Four amputees left Tustin Monday morning on bicycles and headed to Tinton Falls, New Jersey – about 3,500 miles away – with plans to stop at hospitals and amputee support groups to provide inspiration. It's part of the seventh annual Amputees Across America bike ride. They are expected to reach Tinton Falls in early August.

A.J. Johnson, a double amputee, is filling in for Doc Milligan, who sustained a hip injury about a month ago and was unable to ride his bicycle. Johnson lost her second leg to infection last year and was in rehabilitation to learn to walk when she agreed to join the riders.

She plans to learn to ride as the group travels.

"I'll try every day and every day I get closer," said Johnson, 31.

"One day I will hit it and be gone," she said of catching the second bicycle pedal. "I do what I can do and I think that's a good message to get out to anybody."

Green, white and magenta balloons framed the podium as the four Amputees Across America riders spoke about their inspiration for the ride and prepared for their journey during a ceremony at the HealthSouth Tustin Rehabilitation Hospital on Yorba Street.

Tustin Councilman Tony Kawashima presented a certificate of appreciation to the riders. About 50 people filled the hospital during the ceremony.

Paige Looney, a 13-year-old who has had both her legs amputated, has been joining the send-off for seven years. This year, Johnson and riders Joe Sapere, Abel Cruz and Lukas Myers gave her a pink Amputees Across America hat and made her an honorary rider.

As they travel across the nation, Looney keeps in touch with them through e-mail. One day, she plans to ride with them.

"They are my favorite guys because I help them a lot," she said with a smile. "They are the best guys. They're just like me."

Sapere formed Amputees Across America in 2002 with HealthSouth Corp. to inspire people. Riders will stop at 26 HealthSouth Rehabilitation Centers, including southern Arizona, central Kentucky and New York. The ride starts in Tustin because, said spokeswoman Lee Fallon, Tustin is centrally located. The other California HealthSouth hospital is in Bakersfield.

Myers, 19, joined the group after his leg had been amputated in 2002. The Amputees Across America visited the Colorado Springs area during the 2003 ride.

"Their attitude on life and hearing their stories and what they do, it changes your attitude," Myers said.

Information: www.amputeesacrossamerica.com.

Contact the writer: 949-553-2918 or ejames@ocregister.com

Amputee's prosthetic limbs spark tech debate

UNION-TRIBUNE
May 19, 2008

ANDREW YATES / Getty Images
Oscar Pistorius was born without fibulas and had his legs amputated below the knee at 11 months old.

Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius won his appeal Friday and can compete for a place in the Beijing Olympics.

Oscar Pistorius literally does not have a leg to stand on, but he runs as if he were fleeing a fire.

The world's swiftest amputee sprinter is so fast that he has forced the sports world to wonder whether he's working with a disability or an edge; whether technology has trumped the human condition with advances in prosthetics; and what all of that might mean to races down the road.

The Blade Runner, as Pistorius is known, is where the interests of compassion and competition collide. The 21-year-old South African was born without fibulas and had his legs amputated below the knee at 11 months old. He has adapted so well to his artificial lower limbs, however, particularly to the cutting-edge “Cheetahs” developed in Iceland, that the international track federation (IAAF) has sought to legislate him out of its able-bodied competitions, including the Summer Olympic Games of Beijing.

Pistorius prevailed on appeal last week, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport was careful to frame its decision in the narrow terms of existing evidence rather than setting a broad precedent. Hollywood's “Iron Man” might be fiction, but scientific enhancement is indisputable fact.

“I think the principle is that you have some kind of fairness in competition,” said Dr. Lawrence Hinman, who teaches Ethics at the Frontiers of Science at USD. “The empirical question is: Do the prosthetic limbs give someone an unfair advantage? Eventually, they will. . . .

“My own feeling is to say, unless it's pretty clear that this gives him an unfair advantage, that he should be allowed to compete.”

AdvertisementGerman Professor Gert-Peter Brueggemann, who began testing the J-shaped, carbon-fiber “Cheetahs” for the IAAF last November, says Pistorius' advantage is already significant. Brueggemann's data indicates Pistorius' limbs use 25 percent less energy than able-bodied runners to run at the same speed and that Pistorius requires 30 percent less mechanical work to lift his body.
“I did not expect it to be so clear,” Brueggemann told Die Welt.

What Brueggemann considers to be clear, though, Robert Gailey continues to find murky. Gailey, a physical therapist at the University of Miami, told The New York Times last year that a prosthetic leg returns only about 80 percent of the energy absorbed in a stride, compared with as much as 240 percent for a normal leg. Gailey questions, too, whether the IAAF's concerns are based on competitive advantages or cosmetic appearances.

Unlike Lasik eye surgery or arthroscopic joint repairs, prosthetic limbs are not easily concealed when worn with a track suit. Each of these innovations is intended to enhance performance, but only the prostheses alters a sprinter's silhouette.

“Part of what makes it a little more difficult for Pistorius is the prosthetics look incredibly impressive,” Hinman said. “It's that futuristic design. If they looked like wooden legs, there wouldn't be any question.”

Should Pistorius qualify for the Summer Games, he would become the first amputee to compete in an Olympic track event. Yet it's worth noting that gymnast George Eyser won three gold medals in the 1904 Summer Games in St. Louis while operating on a wooden leg. San Diego State's Marla Runyan, legally blind, became the first Paralympian runner to compete in the Olympic Games and finished eighth in the 1,500 meters in the 2000 Games of Sydney.

“I think the Paralympians kind of get short shrift,” said swimming executive Mike Lewis, who once managed Paralympic sports for the U.S. Olympic Committee. “These are world-class athletes. They train as hard. They have the same level of commitment. It's not merely a feel-good achievement.”

Lewis, who earned degrees from UCSD and San Diego State, admits to being “conflicted” about scientific shortcuts. Yet instead of viewing the technology in isolation, Lewis looks at the totality of the Paralympic athlete's experience, at the “totally different variables” that enter into their equations.

“Biomechanically, there is that purported advantage (to prosthetic limbs),” Lewis said. “But that's for the device itself. At the end of the day, it's the user who sits on top of that device.”

By any standard, Pistorius is an extraordinary case. He owns the world Paralympic record at 100, 200 and 400 meters, and his best times at 100 and 200 meters (10.91 and 21.58 seconds) are better than those run by the women's gold medalists at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.

Though he has yet to meet Olympic men's qualifying standards at any distance, Pistorius could still be chosen to represent South Africa in the relays.

“It's genuinely a tough case,” Hinman said. “Even if it didn't (make a decisive difference), he might get better. It's hard to know which you credit to the prosthetic device and what you credit to incredible determination.

“There are plenty of people with that same level of determination who don't get so far.”

Though the race is not always to the swiftest, neither should it be appropriated by the smartest engineer. Much as Oscar Pistorius is an inspiration, he also poses a problem.

Disabled Iraq War vet eyes spot in 2008 Paralympics

By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — As the swimmers begin to take their places at the start line, they nervously adjust their caps and tug at their swimsuits.
Melissa Stockwell walks across the wet tile floor to her lane, bends to stretch her back, then carefully removes her left leg.

Balancing on her right leg, she crouches as the starter raises the gun, then explodes into the water as the gun's sharp crack echoes across the wide expanse of University of Maryland Natatorium.

Stockwell's muscled arms churn butterfly strokes through the water, her stars-and-stripes swim cap bobbing down the lane.

Her left leg, crafted from carbon fiber and titanium, goes unnoticed in the poolside clutter of warm-up jackets, wet towels, wheelchairs, metal crutches and folding blind canes.

At the U.S. Paralympics Open Swimming Championships last weekend, normal was a relative term for the this international group of athletes whose physical conditions range from missing legs and arms to dwarfism to blindness.

On April 13, 2004, Army 1st Lt. Stockwell was leading a supply convoy through the city when her unprotected Humvee was blown into a guardrail by a roadside bomb.

Her left leg was torn away just below the knee, but infection soon ravaged her leg. Surgeons had to saw off the damaged tissue, leaving her with just six inches of limb.

"I didn't feel bad for myself," Stockwell, 27, says. "I was glad it was me and not someone else."

After several months of recovery and rehabilitation, Stockwell walked away from the Army with a Purple Heart medal, medical retirement papers in her file and a prosthetic leg attached to the stump she affectionately calls, "Little Leg."

Since then, the former competitive gymnast, diver and rower has rediscovered her athleticism.

Just four months after she was wounded, she powered a handbike to a finish at the New York City Marathon.

An ROTC graduate of the University of Colorado, she also returned to the Rocky Mountains to relearn how to ski.

She and husband Dick, who was also an Army officer and was in Baghdad when she was wounded, moved to Chicago, where she began swimming in Lake Michigan as training for triathlons.

"I was drawn to swimming because I didn't have to wear a prosthetic to do it," she says.

Now she's one of 17 wounded Iraq veterans aiming for a spot in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics with the support of a U.S. Olympic Committee program that strives to turn warriors into competitive athletes. She's the only swimmer in the group and one of two women (Kerry Miller competes in volleyball).

The program — funded by the USOC, Visa and McDonald's — is not just about elite athletes with Paralympics potential. More than 400 veterans are involved at levels more recreational than Olympian.

"Making the Paralympics team is a great goal," says John Register, associate director of outreach development for the U.S. Paralympics Team, "but the benefits of playing sports go far beyond competition."

U.S. Paralympics Swimming Team director Julie O'Neill says Stockwell has been making "remarkable progress" but has not yet secured a spot on the squad for Beijing.

Stockwell will need to post global competitive times at the U.S. Paralympics Swimming Team Trials in April to accomplish that goal.

She's focused on making the team, but she also sees the rewards she's already reaped.

"I'd love to have my leg back," says Stockwell, who also learned how to fit other amputees with prosthetics. "But the things I have been able to do have been valuable to me. I live a great life, I have no regrets and don't want to go back to what was before.

"This happened for a reason, and it really doesn't matter if I have a leg or not — I can still do whatever I want to do."

Insurance firms deny amputees new limbs

Coalition pushes bill to mandate coverage
By CLAUDIA PINTO • Staff Writer • May 10, 2008


Since Paul Dale's artificial leg started failing,he has suffered falls, injuring an elbow, pulling both shoulders and breaking a rib.

But Dale's insurance company won't pay to replace the prosthesis.


"I think I deserve the same standard of life as anyone else," said the Columbia man, who lost the majority of his left leg to bone cancer in 1983.

Morgan Sheets, the Amputee Coalition of America's national advocacy director, says Dale's story is a common one.

She said insurance companies often deny people access to an artificial limb by allowing only one prosthesis per lifetime, labeling the more expensive computerized limbs as experimental or capping the benefit at $1,000 or $5,000 when the average cost is $8,000 to $15,000.

The Knoxville-based Amputee Coalition of America is pushing for federal legislation, dubbed the Prosthetic Parity Act of 2008, which would force insurance companies to cover prostheses just as they would cover other critical medical care.

Mary Thompson, spokeswoman for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, said the company doesn't have coverage limits on prosthetic devices and opposes a mandate.

"While the intention of state and federal health-care mandates is usually good, they have significantly increased the cost of health care in Tennessee and the nation, almost always for the privately insured," Thompson said.

Sheets said that when artificial limbs are fully funded it adds only about 25 cents per month to insurance premiums.

"People get insurance to cover catastrophic events. What is more catastrophic than losing a limb?" Sheets said. "I think the general public just assumes that if they lose a limb they'll get a prosthesis, and right now that's not happening."

Limbs allow active lives
Ten states have passed prosthetic parity insurance laws. Sixteen others, including Tennessee, have similar proposed legislation.

"Right now, it's hung up in subcommittee. I don't suspect we'll be able to get it done this year," said Mike Alder, a lobbyist for the Tennessee Orthotics Prosthetics Facilities Inc. "There will be a renewed effort next year."

Alder said the insurance industry is resisting the legislation to control costs, but he argues that providing artificial limbs will be more cost effective in the long run.

"To confine someone to a wheelchair after losing a limb is a sedentary lifestyle," Alder said. "Your health is not going to get better by sitting. People can return to very active lives with prosthetic devices."

Sheets said it isn't known how many people are denied artificial limbs each year.

According to the coalition, there are roughly 1.9 million people with limb loss in the U.S.

Sheets said being denied an artificial limb could have devastating results: People sometimes end up losing their jobs and become confined to wheelchairs.

"They want to be able to do the same things everyone else does," Sheets said. "They want to be able to run around with their kids. They want to drive."

Amputee needs new leg
Dale said these days a rock or a slope could throw him off balance and send him toppling over. He uses a C-Leg, a high-tech prosthesis that uses batteries and a computer chip to better replicate the movements of a real leg. The computer in the leg is malfunctioning and the battery won't stay charged.

"I need a new leg to have a decent way of life," he said.

Dale said his insurance company, BlueCross BlueShield of Georgia, wouldn't pay for a new leg because it's considered experimental.

However, BlueCross BlueShield of West Virginia paid for the exact same prosthesis for Dale eight years ago.

Cynthia Sanders, spokeswoman for BlueCross BlueShield of Georgia, said she couldn't comment on Dale's situation specifically because of privacy issues, but she did say that scientific studies on the advantages of computerized prosthetic devices are limited.

"We will continue to review peer-reviewed medical literature and make changes as evidence warrants," Sanders said.

Sheets said the real issue is insurance companies don't want to pay. A new C-Leg for Dale would cost roughly$45,000.

"That's a ploy being used by insurance companies for the more expensive items," Sheets said. "Medicare has been paying for C-Legs for 10 years. Medicare doesn't cover anything that's experimental."

Dale, 64, said he needs the high-tech leg because he's active. He works 40 hours a week, cuts his own grass and restores old cars in his spare time.

Dale said he has looked into getting his artificial leg fixed, but factory officials said the damage is too costly to repair."I'm not asking for an upgrade," Dale said. "I just want a replacement for what I've got."

Contact Claudia Pinto at 259-8277 or cpinto@tennessean.com.

Maryland Man With Prosthetic Legs Runs Across US

Bionic Knee Research for Amputees

Here is some of the lastest Technology for above knee amputee's. Watch how they go up and down stairs. Quite amazing!

Iraq War Creating Advances in Prosthetics

Paula Francis, AnchorIraq War Creating Advances in Prosthetics
Updated:
March 24, 2008 04:48 PM PDT


Wounded soldiers returning from Iraq are getting bionic replacement parts, and the new hi-tech artificial legs are available in Las Vegas.

Dan Ramsey can relate to soldiers who have lost a limb. His own leg was blown off by a land mine in Vietnam -- an explosion that killed two other soldiers.

He's now an expert on replacements as a designer with Prosthetic Center of Excellence in Las Vegas. He says military demands speed up research and development.

"It pushes technology and gains significant advancements in prosthetics. Particularly now with computers -- microprocessors and things like that," he said.

Ramsey wears an example of the latest technology, the C-Leg Prosthesis. A microprocessor is embedded where the calf would be. The computer sensors aid amputees in walking, turning and bending, by making automatic adjustments.

The U.S. Army has helped expedite progress in getting the C-Leg to market.
"The real world has stairs, irregular terrain, curbs, things like that that you have to negotiate. So all these architectural barriers are much easier to negotiate with the c-leg," he said.

Las Vegas orthopedic surgeon and retired Captain Anthony Serfustini has worked in makeshift operating rooms in Iraq. He's now part of the trauma team at UMC. He says the Iraq War is not the first time that a conflict has sparked new inventions.

"You can go back to World War II and Vietnam, in which these conflicts infused excitement, a lot of work and a lot of designs into newer and better prosthetics for our returning servicemen," said Serfustini.

These new designs ultimately benefit civilians. Some 140,000 amputation surgeries are performed in the U.S. each year. As you might imagine, C-Legs are expensive, costing more than $30,000.

What Are You Looking At?

Born without legs, Kevin Connolly snaps photos of people staring at him -- turning the watchers into the watched.

By KEVIN SITES, WED MAR 19, 5:21 PM PDT



When Kevin Connolly was ten years old his family took him to Disney World, but for some theme park visitors that day, it was Connolly who quickly became the main attraction.
Born without legs but otherwise healthy, Connolly traveled the world, taking pictures of people as they stared at him.
"I remember distinctly being surrounded by Japanese tourists trying to take my photograph without talking to me or asking me," he says from his apartment in Bozeman, Montana. "My dad was right behind me, and I remember him getting pretty frustrated with the whole process, because it was something that was happening every single day."

Born without legs, Connolly was already used to the stares of strangers -- but that moment would help him start to understand that the lens could work in both directions.

On a solo trip to Europe, more than a decade later, he was riding his skateboard down a Vienna street when he felt a man staring at him.
Connolly lifted his camera to his hip, pointed it toward the man and without even looking through the viewfinder, clicked off five or six shots.

Connolly would repeat that action 32,000 more times during his travels, creating a diverse portfolio of individuals from a broad assortment of countries. He posted some of these images online, under the title "The Rolling Exhibition."

What he captured was a paradigm shift, turning the watchers into the watched. In the process he discovered something about them -- and himself.

"While these people have, on the surface, an expression of pity or sadness or curiosity, looking at the legless guy on a skateboard," he says, "at the same time, they're opening themselves up; they're incredibly vulnerable."

For a photographer that kind of image is the Holy Grail. Connolly, from his unique perspective (he's three feet seven inches tall), seems to have found a way to capture it over and over again using himself as his subjects' focal point.

He explains his technique as not baiting people, but inviting them to look.

"If you were someone on the street," he says, "and I was passing you, my eye line would either be straight ahead, down at the ground, or more often, off in the other way with my head turned so that it would give the viewer full permission to stare without the potential of getting caught."

"Patting a legless guy on the head and telling him that he's really inspirational... is probably the last thing you wanna hear when you're trying to seriously work on a photo project." — Kevin Connolly

While gratifying artistically, it's also an unsettling position for the 22-year-old Montana State photography student. Connolly has spent most of his life shrugging off the perhaps well-intentioned, but ultimately dismissive, stereotypical role of the "inspiring" physically-challenged individual.

"That's just people looking for the easy answers," says Connolly. "So patting a legless guy on the head and telling him that he's really inspirational, and it's so amazing how quick and fast he can get around is probably the last thing you wanna hear when you're trying to seriously work on a photo project."

But Connolly isn't normal. In fact, he lives much more adventurously than many of us. With the exception of his missing legs, due to a random birth defect, the rest of his body is fine, all organs intact and fully functional.

A prosthetics manufacturer created a custom body shoe for him that looks like a leather bowl covered on the outside with a rubber tread for traction. Connolly uses the device to protect and cushion his torso during most of his activities.

Growing up, Connolly says his parents didn't coddle him and raised him like any other outdoor-loving Montana family. They took him camping and hiking. Connolly became an avid rock climber and a champion skier who took a silver medal in the X-Games.

With the prize money he won in that contest, he decided to travel alone throughout Europe and Asia. It was on that journey he began shooting the photos that would become the Rolling Exhibition.



Connolly is a champion skier and avid rock climber.
But Connolly learned something else during his photographic odyssey -- something that raised the issue of identity.

Many of the people he met, it seemed, did not wait for him to explain the reason for the absence of his legs. Instead, they automatically supplied their own narrative, one uniquely suited to their own environment or personal sensibilities.

For example, while traveling in New Zealand a woman asked Connolly if he was the victim of a shark attack. In Romania some thought he was a beggar; at a bar in Montana a man bought him a beer and thanked him for his service, believing Connolly was a wounded veteran of the Iraq War.

Connolly says he learns more from people by not correcting their assumptions.

"On the one hand, it's surreal to have that happen to you and to have that projection put upon you," he says. "But on the other hand, it's a great clue as to what's going on inside someone's head."

He's happy, he says, to be their blank slate, if that's what they need from him -- a point he makes in a striking Internet video he made to promote the Rolling Exhibition.

In it, he walks on his hands onto the middle of a stark white backdrop, his face blurred by the glare of a powerful light, which slowly drops in intensity until his face is revealed.

What it also seems to reveal is that he is a man willing, for a moment at least, to be the object of your gaze, to let you look at what he's missing -- as long as you are willing to let him do the same to you.

Kevin Connolly graduates from college in May and says his next photographic journey could include exploring some of the world's conflict zones.

---

-Producers: Didrik Johnck, Robert Padavick
-Video editors: Didrik Johnck, Krysten Peek
-Camera: Didrik Johnck
-Additional video and photographs courtesy Kevin Connolly and Fritz Statler

Future of Prosthetics

Here is an interesting video on Future Prosthetics! We have come a long way!!!

Wrestling notebook: Amputee's efforts earn crowd's hearty support

Saturday, March 1, 2008 2:56 AM
By Jeremy McLaughlin

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


NEAL C. LAURON dispatch
Chris Canty, left, of DeSales reacts to losing a 145-pound match to Dustin Fraley of Miami Trace in Division II.

Carter, a quadruple amputee, won his opening match Thursday but lost twice yesterday and was eliminated from the 103-pound Division II tournament. After a 5-3 loss signaled Carter's exit, fans stood and applauded for a full two minutes.

Later, before the evening session, the senior was honored with a video tribute on the scoreboard and got a second, even longer ovation.

"It's been a trip," Carter said. "I'll never forget it. I'll probably brag about it my whole life. I'll probably wake up every morning and remember these last two days and what an adventure it was, all the blood, sweat and tears it took to get to this tournament."

Unpleasant
Pleasant came into the Division III tournament looking to avenge a narrow loss to Troy Christian last year (154-151.5). Through the quarterfinal round, the Spartans were in good shape. Pleasant led Troy Christian 75-70 and both had six semifinalists.

But the evening session was a disaster for the Spartans. They lost five of their semifinal matches, two of them to Troy Christian, and are left with no chance of making up a 46-point deficit. They dropped to third behind Monroeville.

"It was a tough round," coach Doug Short said.

Defending champion Jedd Moore at 152 is Pleasant's only finalist.

Ready for No. 1
West Jefferson senior Jim Householder focused on two goals all season: get to the Division III 119-pound final and wrestle the top-ranked wrestler in the nation.

He'll do both today. Householder won 10-3 in a semifinal against Mike Kovach of Bedford Chanel. He goes against Logan Stieber of Monroeville tonight.

"(Stieber) is the one I've worked for," Householder said. "The last two years I've worked to get to his level, and it's what I've trained for. Win or lose, I know I earned my way to that final."

Get the party started
Central District wrestlers will kick off the first three Division III finals. Spencer Pierce of North Union faces Stieber's younger brother, Hunter, at 103. Tyler Heminger of Northmor goes against another Monroeville wrestler, Cam Tessari, at 112, followed by Householder.

Zach Nelson of Madison Plains will be in the 145 final. Nelson, a 2006 champion, will face Zach Toal of Troy Christian, a 2007 champion.


DeSales heavyweight John Hiles, a projected champion in Division II, lost a quarterfinal match 2-1 to Adam Walls of St. Paris Graham. A stalling call late in the first period that gave Walls a point was the difference.

Hiles rebounded with two consolation wins, including a pin. Two wins today and he would place third.

State of the state
St. Paris Graham has six finalists in Division II and all must win for it to tie the record for individual champions. Cleveland West set the mark more than 50 years ago. St. Paris Graham leads second-place Oak Harbor by 100 points.

Lakewood St. Edward leads in Division I with 119 points. Massillon Perry is second, trailing by 40. Westerville North is fourth with 51.

Individually, Tony Jameson of Austintown-Fitch advanced to the Division I 145 final. He is looking to become Ohio's 16th four-time champion.

kgordon@dispatch.com

jmclaughlin@dispatch.com

Touch Bionics expands in US to meet demand for prosthetic hand

MTB europe
Technology for Healthcare
27 February 2008


Scottish company Touch Bionics, developer of the world’s first commercially available bionic hand, has set up a US subsidiary, Touch Bionics, Inc. to help meet the growing demand for its revolutionary prosthetic hand.


The i-LIMB prosthetic hand

The company opened new headquarters and a development and manufacturing facility in Livingston, Scotland in January this year.

Touch Bionics launched the i-LIMB Hand in July 2007, and the product has now established itself as one of the hottest devices in the world prosthetics market. The company expects that its clinical customers will have fitted more than 100 patients, from all over the world, by the end of February 2008, representing very strong performance in such a specialist field.

“The level of global enquiries since the launch of the i-LIMB Hand has resulted in a very busy six months for Touch Bionics and we are hitting the top end of our expected sales growth,” said Stuart Mead, Touch Bionics CEO. “The response from patients and clinics alike has further convinced us that the market is ready for our product, meaning that this new facility is vitally important to helping us maintain our rapid growth.”

“We are performing well in export markets — 94% of our business is coming through exported product, and the USA is proving to be our biggest market,” added Mead.

Following its commercial launch, global market perception of the i-LIMB Hand has evolved from exciting new technology to a widely accepted clinical option in the space of six months. Touch Bionics has now established relationships with a wide range of clinical companies – from the world’s largest to smaller, independent clinics.


“Having a stronger US presence enables Touch Bionics to better serve its growing network of partner clinics in America, the company’s biggest market,” said Touch Bionics CEO Stuart Mead. “With more US clinics offering the i-LIMB Hand, growing numbers of American amputees will have the option of being fitted with the most advanced prosthetic hand on the market. The fact that we’re at the top end of our sales projections shows there is a ready market for our product.”


More than 70 patients worldwide have been fitted with the hand and the company anticipates reaching the milestone of 100 fitted patients by the end of February 2008.


Jake Wood, CP, FAAOP, sole certified prosthetist and co-owner at Orthotics and Prosthetics Associates, Inc. in Milwaukee, WI said, “I am so appreciative of what they have made available for my patients. Touch Bionics technology allows me to do my job better, providing patients with a solution that enhances and improves their day-to-day lives. Due to the anthropomorphic, dexterity and functional capabilities of the i-LIMB Hand, it’s in a league of its own, technology-wise.


“This is the first time in my 30 years in the prosthetics business that I felt I was truly delivering an arm to the patient,” continued Wood. “I never thought in my lifetime that I would ever see this technology.”


In addition to the developments in the US, Touch Bionics has also now cemented European partnerships with clinics and distributors in Germany, Turkey, Hungary, Romania and the Benelux region, with more global partners signing up in countries such as South Korea, Argentina and Brazil. In the space of just six months, global market perception of the i-LIMB Hand has evolved from exciting new technology to a widely accepted clinical option.

"I Can Still Be a Mother"

Home / Globe / Boston Globe Sunday Magazine {PART 2 of 2}

"I Can Still Be a Mother"
Her limbs gone but her heart strong, Monica Sprague begins the long road back to the life she knew, driven by the desire to be there for the husband who stood by her and the daughters who need her.

Monica Sprague Jorge's daughters Madalyn (left) and Sofia have been her daily inspiration. (Globe Staff / Suzanne Kreiter)
EmailPrint Text size – + By Doug Most
February 17, 2008

THE NURSES CHANGING the dressings on Monica Sprague's arms and legs a few times a day developed a unique routine. Most important was shielding Monica from seeing her own limbs - so they would distract her, ask her to close her eyes, or simply stand in her line of sight. And then they would slowly unwrap the cream-colored gauze slick with Vaseline from the tips of her fingers all the way up past her elbows and from the tips of her toes up past her knees. The limbs were dead, all black and shriveled, hard for anyone to look at, never mind the person whose own body they were attached to, and so once the bandages were off, a fresh coat of Vaseline was applied and fresh gauze delicately wrapped on.
related
{PART 1 of 2} Saving Monica
{PART 2 of 2} 'I Can Still Be a Mother'
Video Monica at home
photos: Part 1 Part 2

"Her hands were the most horrendous I'd ever seen," says Kate Davignon, one of the nurses in MGH's surgical ICU who helped change Monica's bandages. "Her fingers were the size of a child's. They were all shriveled, small and thin. They were black through and through, the nails and the skin."
The nurses were successful at protecting Monica from seeing her wounds, until one day when she stopped Davignon.
"I want to see," Monica said.
It was early in September 2007. Barely one month ago, Monica had given birth to a beautiful daughter, her second, and had been so close to going home healthy to her apartment in Ayer and starting her new life with her fiance, Tony Jorge, their newborn, Sofia Maria, and Madalyn, her bubbly and precocious 9-year-old from her first marriage. But that all seemed so long ago. Now Monica, a passionate, spry, and outgoing 35-year-old woman with a perpetual smile, was slowly accepting the hard truth that a rare and mysterious flesh-eating bacteria had nearly killed her in the hours and days after her delivery at Emerson Hospital in Concord and that she was alive only because of the fast and aggressive care she got from trauma surgeons at Mass. General.
But even they were not miracle workers. The bacteria were gone from her body, but not before doing irreparable and devastating damage. The only way she was going to live, the only way she was ever going home again was if she let doctors amputate both her arms and both her legs. Those surgeries were now days away, and Davignon, all of 28 and an MGH nurse for five years, had hoped to make it to the operations without Monica ever glimpsing her dead limbs. But Monica had insisted.
"Well, they're really pretty bad," Davignon replied when Monica said she wanted to look. "I'm not sure if you want to see."
"No, I want to see. I want to know what I have to work with."Continued...

VIDEO REPORT: Party with a Purpose

Saturday, Feb 09, 2008 - 07:33 PM
BY Nicki Mayo TriCities.comSend e-mail

To View Video click : http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2008-02-09-0013.html

A Bristol, Tennessee girl celebrates her tenth birthday by donating money to charity. Tricities.com’s Nicki Mayo reports on the party with a purpose.
Click monitor to the right to view video report.

“Most kids they like to get presents and they like to keep them,” said Alfred Cole. “It really makes me proud to know that she wants to do this for someone else,” adds the proud grandfather.

Kingsport Jericho Shriner, Alfred Cole is glowing over his granddaughter’s decision to donate money to the Jericho Shrine Orthopedic Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina.

“Last year I gave my toys away and this year I’m giving money away to Shriners Orthopedic,” said Ariana Hill.

The Avoca Elementary school student celebrated her birthday with a party with a purpose at the Sullivan County Volunteer Fire Department Saturday afternoon. Ariana says she doesn’t want to waste her birthday wishes on toy’s she’ll never play use.

“I get toy’s I never play with them. Just when I first get them I do. Then I forget about them,” said Hill.

Her friends had a ball playing with the fire engines and equipment. The party gave the children a chance to have fun and help fellow children in need.

“It felt really good because whenever you think that you’re helping somebody you’re giving it to one person, just think that you’re giving it to millions of people,” said partygoer Jessica Green.

Ariana hopes the money will go to help buy toys and clothes for the children at Shriners Hospital.

To Donate to Ariana’s Fund
-Make a check out to Jericho Shrine
- Write “Ariana” in the memo line.
-Mail or drop it off to/at:
Kingsport Jericho Shrine
1100 Sam Walton Drive
P.O. Box 5548
Kingsport, Tennessee
Zip Code 37663
http://www.webruler.com/shriners/jericho.htm

Click link to see the Jericho Shrine Orthopedic Hospital page: http://www.shrinershq.org/Hospitals/Greenville/

Source of inspiration: Injured soldier produces Giant emotions - NFL

PHOENIX -- To date, the United States has 3,940 confirmed deaths in Iraq. Back in May, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Greg Gadson, a battalion leader, very nearly found himself on that list. An IED (improvised explosive device) thoroughly shattered his body. Only 70 pints of blood, the exceptional field work of men in his 1st Infantry Division and the skill of doctors saved his life.
His legs weren't so fortunate.
The New York Giants, however, consider themselves blessed to have made this double-amputee's acquaintance. They credit Gadson, who played football at Army with New York wide receivers coach Mike Sullivan, with helping to salvage their season and making it something approaching superb. His stirring pregame speeches and his living example of courage and perseverance have inspired them all the way to Super Bowl XLII.
ESPN's Sunday Countdown
Check out Rachel Nichols' report, on Super Bowl Sunday, featuring U.S. Army Lt. Col. Greg Gadson's inspirational impact on the Giants. Sunday Countdown, 11 a.m. ET, ESPN
"I think sometimes I'm given a little too much credit for, quote, being inspirational," Gadson said on Monday in an interview at Walter Reed National Army Medical Center in Washington. "I may be, and if people take inspiration from that I'm glad and I'm grateful. But at the same time, I think I'm just trying to fight, and I'm trying to survive." For more of the story click here.

Double amputee walks again due to Bluetooth

From Larry ShaughnessyCNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Bleill lost both his legs above the knees when a bomb exploded under his Humvee while on patrol in Iraq on October 15, 2006. He has 32 pins in his hip and a 6-inch screw holding his pelvis together.

Joshua Bleill, pictured here with his girlfriend, is walking again with the aid of prosthetics outfitted with Bluetooth.

Now, he's starting to walk again with the help of prosthetic legs outfitted with Bluetooth technology more commonly associated with hands-free cell phones.

"They're the latest and greatest," Bleill said, referring to his groundbreaking artificial legs.
Bleill, 30, is one of two Iraq war veterans, both double leg amputees, to use the Bluetooth prosthetics. Computer chips in each leg send signals to motors in the artificial joints so the knees and ankles move in a coordinated fashion.

Bleill's set of prosthetics have Bluetooth receivers strapped to the ankle area. The Bluetooth device on each leg tells the other leg what it's doing, how it's moving, whether walking, standing or climbing steps, for example.

"They mimic each other, so for stride length, for amount of force coming up, going uphill, downhill and such, they can vary speed and then to stop them again," Bleill told CNN from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he's undergoing rehab.

"I will put resistance with my own thigh muscles to slow them down, so I can stop walking, which is always nice." Watch Bleill demonstrate his legs »

Bluetooth is the name for short-range wireless technology that can connect computers to printers, MP3 players to speakers and -- perhaps the most well-known use -- cell phones to ear pieces.

Older models of computer-controlled legs have to be "programmed" via wire by laptop computers before the amputee can use them. Those legs required more movement from the amputee's remaining thigh muscle to generate motion in the prosthetic leg.

Because of built-in motors, the Bluetooth legs allow Bleill to walk longer before he tires.
"We've compared walking several laps in both sets of legs and one, your legs come out burning and tired and these, you know, you sometimes are not even breaking a sweat yet."

Bleill says the technology also means he spends less time in a wheelchair. The Marine uses canes to walk with them. He's hoping to get to the point where he can use one cane regularly, and eventually lose the cane altogether.

"I can walk without canes, but it's not real pretty," he said.

This new generation of prosthetic technology was originally conceived to help amputees who had lost only one leg. But it's working for Bleill and Army Lt.Col. Gregory Gadson, who is also using the Bluetooth devices in his legs.

What they are experiencing will help future amputees.

"We are the first ever to try this, so it's learning day-to-day. The [prosthetics] company comes down on a regular basis and checks in with us," Bleill said.

Gadson, a former linebacker at West Point, said they are breaking new ground for amputees. "I think we are kind of pioneering and hopefully blazing a trail for others to try the technology also," he said.

But the technology is not without some problems.

"It's only going to react to how I move," Bleill said. "Unfortunately, sometimes I don't know those reactions, I don't know what I'm doing to make it react. So sometimes the leg kicks harder than I want it to, or farther, and then I start perpetuating, and I start moving faster than I really want to."

Aside from the Bluetooth technology, Bleill's legs have one other thing in common with a cell phone. They need to be charged overnight. Currently, there are no spare batteries available.
What are his long-range plans?

He just wants to make it back to his home state of Indiana and work for a charity or even help the NFL's Indianapolis Colts.
"They do a lot for the community," he said.
He added he simply wants "to give back."
"To, you know, just carry on a normal life. Go home, see my girlfriend, see my family."