Horses Provide Alternative Therapy at Windridge Center

By ADAM WADSWORTH
Staff Writer

Many people associate the word "therapy" with doctors' offices and prescription medication.

Not Margo Dewkitt.

She and the members of her staff at Windridge Therapeutic Equestrian Center in Gilmer are doing their best to provide a fun alternative to traditional rehabilitation through the use of horses.

"Horses provide therapy, life skills, communication and social skills," Dewkitt said. "Everything should be provided in a session."

Because of the unique benefits that come with riding horses, Ms. Dewkitt said, Windridge is able to help people with all kinds of disabilities, from autism and head injuries to drug addictions and delinquency.

With assistance from the horses, Ms. Dewkitt believes she and her staff can help anybody.One such client is 4-year-old Madalin Kowalik of Longview, who has been diagnosed with Rett Syndrome.

Madalin's mother, Shannon Kowalik, said Windridge was recommended to her while the family was working with the Early Childhood Intervention program.

"We're very pleased. It's wonderful," she said. "I would trade any other therapy for this one."

Ms. Kowalik said that although Madalin receives physical and occupational therapy at school, she can tell Madalin views that those efforts as work, whereas she genuinely enjoys coming to Windridge.

She said Madalin really enjoys spending time with her therapist, Celia Bower, and she can tell that everyone who works with her daughter actually cares about her.

"Celia seems to really click with all kids," Ms. Kowalik said. "She's just blessed with that gift."

Outside of Windridge, Madalin is just another 4-year-old, her mom said. She enjoys watching movies, jumping on the trampoline, swimming and listening to her mother read books to her.

Ms. Kowalik said she is convinced Windridge is the right place for her daughter, not only because it is the best type of therapy physically, but because of the joy in her daughter's face when they go to the center.

"When you tell her we're coming here, she is so thrilled," Ms. Kowalik said.

History

Windridge was founded as a nonprofit organization in 1988, with Ms. Dewkitt as the lone instructor.

When the center opened its doors in March 1989, it had just two patients.The program was dependant on volunteers at first because it was not generating enough revenue to support a paid staff.

But from there, the program steadily evolved, adding to it a number of trained instructors and more patients every year.

By the late 1990s, it became obvious that the original facilities were no longer large enough to house the constantly expanding group. Plans were formulated to build a state-of-the-art facility that would allow Windridge to not only continue growing, but to expand its research program as well.

The center purchased land next to its original location in 1997 and began the process of constructing a permanent home.

When the current facility opened in 2001, it already was completely paid for, with 78 percent of the funds coming directly from East Texans.

"We are a tribute to East Texas," Ms. Dewkitt said.

The 38,000-square-foot facility was completed with Windridge entirely debt-free.

Today, the center supports nine full-time instructors, all of whom are certified with the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA), and helps almost 140 clients each week.

Clients' ages have spanned from 1 year old to 85, and the center has grown from six horses and five volunteers 20 years ago to 22 horses and more than 70 dedicated volunteers today.

They also have expanded what was once solely a therapeutic riding program to include therapeutic driving, hippotherapy and a teenage volunteer program.

Instructors

Windridge is not just an educational tool for its clients but also serves as NARHA certification for volunteers who want to become full-time instructors.

The nine staff members had a combined 24 years of volunteer time before they becoming instructors.

Because therapeutic riding still is a relatively new concept, there are no universities that offer majors in it, so Windridge works as a school for those interested in pursuing it as a career.

Staff members who hope to become certified attend two taught lessons and two practical sessions each week, usually taking five years to earn certification.

Julia Bourcier, program director at Windridge, was a former volunteer and now oversees the instructors, helping them progress through the programs.

Ms. Bourcier began volunteering when she was 15.

A year later, Windridge began offering certification for those interested, and she made the choice to move forward with the program.

She spent a year volunteering at another center, which she said greatly increased her respect for the Windridge program.

"With that experience, I can tell you that this is one of the most professional and excellent centers there is," Ms. Bourcier said, placing Windridge in the top 10 percent of programs as far as facilities and community support.

The instructors spend time with clients in on-site classrooms as well as on the horses to teach riding skills, which will in turn correct posture, work muscles and evoke the best influence on the body.

The goal of the program is to better develop the rider as a whole person, not just his or her horsemanship.

The instructors play games and have the clients interact with the horse to motivate them to do the things they may not want to do.

"There are very few things that motivate (kids) as much as animals and toys."

Therapy

Windridge partners with Kidz First Therapy in Longview to provide on-site therapy at its facility in Gilmer.

Ms. Bower, the hippotherapy director from Kidz First, works with the clients at Windridge to provide traditional physical therapy, such as stretching on a mat, in addition to the unique programs at the center.

She said the horse generally acts as a primer to the regular therapy.

She is a self-proclaimed "horse person" and has held a love for the animals her entire life.

She learned about hippotherapy while in physical therapy school, where she wrote papers and completed projects on the subject.

Bower left her home state of California after meeting with Dewkitt and discussing her future in the career. She moved to East Texas and volunteered at the center for a year before affiliating with Kidz First.

"It's phenomenal," she said of her experience with Windridge. "It's very well organized, very well run."

She said the staff at the center communicate well and have strong relationships with each other.

Ms. Bower said she always has been good with children and is grateful for the opportunity to do something she loves for a living.

In addition to helping children in need, the therapy program at Windridge is beginning to focus heavily on research for hippotherapy, which has not yet been validated through controlled testing.

A portion of the organization's new facilities has been dedicated to research and the staff is preparing for its first big project.

Through use of video, a climate-controlled room, a treadmill and multiple cutting-edge tools, such as a sensor that can accurately measure the movement of a rider's pelvis, the researchers are attempting to prove how much riding a horse actually moves a person's body.

The group also is studying how different riding positions and different horses affect the body in different ways.

The study will give the staff a more scientific way of choosing a particular horse based on a child's specific needs.

Madalin, for example, has trouble with balance and keeping her hands down, so with their research, the therapists will better be able to choose an animal that will tap in to her neurological senses.

More information about the programs at Windridge can be found at www.windridgetexas.com.

Updated Monday, June 22, 2009 at 11:18 a.m. CDT

Ironman competitor motivates children with personal story

By Anne Hershewe

news@joplinglobe.com

Sarah Reinertsen is in Joplin for the Boomtown Days Half-Marathon and 5K Fun Run, but the 34-year-old from California is no ordinary athlete.

She is the first person with a prosthetic leg to finish the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, a race she completed in 2005. That event includes a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run — all in one day.

Reinertsen brought her message — “Believe in yourself and believe in the possibility that lies ahead of you” — to children and their families at the Freeman East Pediatric Therapy and Development Clinic on Friday morning.

She was born with proximal femoral focal deficiency, a birth defect that led to her leg being amputated at age 7.

“When I left the hospital, they told me I would never be able to run,” she told the children and others at Freeman.

Reinertsen said that she was determined to learn how to run. And she did. Then she said she found out about the Ironman.

“I saw it and thought, ‘Those people are crazy! I want to do that.’ I believed that I could do it.”

Reinertsen passed around her prosthetic leg, a C-shaped “foot” based on the hind leg of a cheetah, for all the children to examine. She explained the different types of legs she has and answered questions from the audience.

Emma and Ella Leach, ages 7 and 6, were among those in attendance.

“It’s just really cool that she was the first woman to do the Ironman with an artificial leg,” said Ella.

Freeman and Reinertsen surprised the children with Sarah Bears — Teddy bears modeled after Reinertsen, complete with a prosthetic leg.

“I like that the bear has an artificial leg,” said Emma.

Reinertsen autographed the bears and was able to talk with the children one-on-one.

“This is my favorite part, talking with kids,” she said. “It’s hard growing up different. I hope they can look at me and think, ‘Maybe I can find a possibility for me, too.’ They just want to know that they can have a normal life.”

She told the children that she remembers being scared and embarrassed because she was different and people stared at her.

Audie Dennis, who organized the Boomtown Days runs, said he asked Reinertsen to come at the suggestion of Bart Yasso, another Ironman competitor who also is in Joplin for the race.

Dennis said he had watched Reinertsen finish the Ironman and had been moved by her story and accomplishments.

Unfortunately, Reinertsen will be unable to participate in the Boomtown run today because of a stress fracture she suffered about three weeks ago. Though she won’t be running, she told everyone she would be there cheering for them.

Race details

Race-day registration for the 5K Fun Run is from 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. Races begin at 7 a.m. Awards ceremonies will be at 8 a.m. (5K) and 9:30 a.m. (half-marathon). For a complete schedule of Boomtown Days visit boomtowndays.com.

Faith, family and fortitude

By all rights, flesh-eating bacteria should have killed Blake Haxton. He and his family credit God, the Upper Arlington community, his doctors and his strong rower's body for helping to pull him through.

Thursday, June 11, 2009 3:24 AM
By Misti Crane and Jeb Phillips

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Almost three months after his right calf started hurting, after countless prayers, after nearly 20 surgeries and fear that he wouldn't make it, Blake Haxton sat tall in his wheelchair on Tuesday.

He's thinner than in his senior picture, taken when he was in peak physical form, when many considered him the best high-school rower in the state. A sheet was wrapped around his lap on Tuesday and gauze around his right arm. His Upper Arlington Crew shirt hung off him.

What, he was asked, was the most difficult thing he had to overcome during all of this?

"Learning to eat hospital food," he said.

His friends and family make this point: He's still Blake. He still can crack a joke, even if his voice is a little strained from the tubes that helped keep him alive. He still wants the best from life, even if sitting upright for an hour exhausts him for now.

He believes in himself, his abilities and his own body, even if it's not quite the same body he used to have. He believes that God has seen him through.

Almost anyone else with the same infection would have died, Blake's doctor said. But Blake is not just anyone. Blake has a mother and father who taught him inner strength. He has teammates who love him, dozens of medical staffers trying to save him, a church that prays for God to help him and -- when news of his condition got out -- prayers from thousands of others around the world.

On Saturday evening, March 14, Blake did his usual -- he helped a team win.

In the semifinals of an Upper Arlington recreational basketball league tournament, he hit two free throws that sent the game into overtime. His team pulled out the victory and was scheduled to play in the finals on Sunday.

That night, he told his friend Mike Caligiuri that he thought he had pulled his calf muscle. Blake was never much of a complainer.

"He's a tough kid," Mike said. "If he said it hurt, it must have really hurt."

Blake limped down the stairs the next morning. He couldn't play in the finals, he decided. By late afternoon, his father could see the pain on his face. His calf looked swollen. Blake took Tylenol PM and went to bed.

His mother had already taken his 12-year-old sister, Haley, to school and returned home on Monday morning when he told her he thought he needed to see his doctor. At the appointment, the doctor told him to go to the emergency room.

Click here for more on this amazing story!

Amputee shows off skills

Nine-year-old Lewis Jeon has only been playing violin since January, but he wowed his schoolmates Thursday when he performed a few songs for them.

Jeon, who is in Grade 4 at Valley View Elementary School, was born without his right hand, and he uses a myoelectric arm to hold the bow.

He played the violin as part of his War Amps CHAMP presentation at the school, showing other students although he is missing a hand, he can do all kinds of things.

Jeon is a member of the War Amps Child Amputee Program (CHAMP), and he spread the War Amps’ PLAYSAFE message, as he spoke about spotting dangers and about living with a missing limb.

“Amputees can do anything,” he said.

Besides violin, Jeon also enjoys playing tennis.

“Sometimes it’s hard for people to know what it’s like to live without an arm or leg,” he said. “People don’t know what to say. For me, it’s OK to ask questions like ‘what happened to your hand?’ but it’s not OK to say I can’t play this game with you because I don’t have a hand or whispering or pointing or calling me ‘armee.”

Jeon showed video clips about playing and driving safely, about spotting dangers and about other Champs and everything they can do.

He urged students to be careful and to stay away from dangers such as power lines, trains and machinery.

writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com

Understanding phantom limb pain

By Louis Neipris, M.D., Staff Writer, myOptumHealth

Content provided by

Foot pain so bad it awakens a deep sleeper. Hand pain so severe it feels like it's in a vise grip. What's unusual about these complaints is that they can come from people whose foot or hand was amputated. But how can something that's not there hurt so badly? This type of pain is called phantom limb pain. It adds to the difficult experience of adjusting to life after injury. Forty percent to 80 percent of people who undergo amputation have some degree of phantom limb pain. To many of the soldiers with traumatic amputations, phantom limb pain can make rehabilitation even more challenging.

Phantom limb pain is different from residual limb pain, which is pain in the remaining limb or stump. Phantom limb pain is also distinct from phantom limb sensation, non-painful sensations in the missing limb. While it's annoying or distracting, phantom limb sensation is not debilitating.

The pain often starts within days after the loss of the limb. For some, though, phantom limb pain doesn't appear until months or even years after losing the limb. In most cases, the painful attacks will become shorter and less frequent as time goes on.

People were once told they were imagining the pain or that it was a psychological problem. Now there is a better understanding of why phantom pain occurs. This offers greater hope for successful treatment.

What are the symptoms of phantom limb pain?

Pain in the missing part of limb
Squeezing, like missing foot or hand is being crushed in a vise
Sensation that missing limb is twisted or distorted
Burning, tingling, throbbing, shooting pain, pins and needles sensation, stabbing, pinching or cramping
Symptoms tend to get worse in cold weather or before a storm. Stress or anxiety can also worsen phantom limb pain. So can pressure caused by a prosthesis.

What causes phantom limb pain?

The exact cause is not known. Imaging studies done during symptoms show that there is activity in the part of the brain that previously controlled the missing limb. It may be the brain's attempt to process information from the damaged nerves. The resulting sensation is pain.

How is phantom limb pain diagnosed?

The diagnosis is made on the basis of a history and physical exam. It is important to give the doctor all details, even if they sound strange. Your doctor will look at the stump for any painful spots that can trigger phantom limb pain. If you have a prosthesis, the doctor will also make sure it fits properly. A poor-fitting prosthesis can trigger phantom limb pain.

Treatment

Finding the right treatment for phantom limb pain is challenging and can take time. Treatment may include:

Medications used to treat epilepsy and depression may also help relieve phantom limb pain. Your doctor may also prescribe opioids (a type of pain killer). Other medicines such as beta-blockers or anti-inflammatory medications may help, but more studies are needed to test how well they work for this. It may take time to find which medicine is best for you.
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). This is electrical stimulation of the skin around the stump to attempt to interfere with nearby painful stimuli. TENS therapy is an effective treatment for many with phantom limb pain.
Other treatments may include different forms of physical medicine, including biofeedback. The goal of biofeedback is to use visual or other sensory stimuli to retrain the brain to stop sending pain signals. Sensory discrimination training is another therapy that has shown promise in helping with the pain.
Relaxation techniques, such as visual imagery, have been shown to help in some other types of pain. But more research needs to be done using these techniques in phantom limb pain.
Nerve blocks or epidural blocks are sometimes used when the pain cannot be relieved with other methods.
Rarely, surgery may be an option when the pain can't be controlled. Spinal cord stimulation or disruption of the nerves that carry pain messages have been tried in a few cases of pain that did not respond to any other treatments.
Team approach and support

For many, a combination of medical, behavioral and social support is the best approach. Losing a limb is a major life-altering event. Sharing your feelings with others going through similar experiences can often help. Work with a team that includes a pain management specialist, psychologist and both a physical and occupational therapist. A social worker can help you coordinate these services.

SOURCES:

Amputee Coalition of America. Pain management. Post amputation pain.
American Pain Foundation. Pain question and answer: Phantom limb pain.
Birklein F, Maihöfner C. Use your imagination. Training the brain and not the body to improve chronic pain and restore function. Graded motor imagery. Neurology. 2006;67(12):2115-2116.
Moon SB, Se HJ. Phantom Limb Pain. In: Frontera WR, Silver JK, Rizzo TD. Frontera: Essentials of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders Elsevier; 2008.

An inspiration for everyone to become pioneers

By LINDA ROBERTSON
lrobertson@MiamiHerald.com
Scott Duncan, blind since birth, is sailing around the world on his 39-foot boat, Starship.

Jesse Billauer, paralyzed in a surfing accident, is still surfing the waves off Malibu.

Carlos Moleda, a former Navy SEAL who was shot in the spine, competes in triathlons.

Aimee Mullins, a double amputee, became a Paralympic champion sprinter, fashion model, actress and activist.

Kelly Perkins, recipient of a heart transplant, climbs the world's highest mountains.

Anywhere you turn at the No Barriers Festival, which concludes Sunday at the Shake-A-Leg complex in Coconut Grove, you likely are to meet a remarkable athlete. Their ingenious and courageous accomplishments make the feats of able-bodied superstars seem pedestrian by comparison.

The festival showcases the latest in technology, medical research and can-do spirit through symposiums such as ''Vision Substitution in the Blind by Means of Tactile Stimulation of the Tongue'' and clinics that teach swimming, kayaking, golf, handcycling and wheelchair fencing.

''This festival should inspire all of us to become pioneers, to think about designing our own solutions to roadblocks which stand in the way of us accomplishing our dreams,'' said chairman Erik Weihenmayer, the only blind person to stand on the top of the Seven Summits -- including Mt. Everest.

SENSE OF ADVENTURE

Gape at a Dwyane Wade dunk, but then think about what Duncan is doing. Duncan and his first mate, Pamela Habek, are attempting to become the first legally blind sailors to circumnavigate the globe without assistance.

They are halfway there, logging 17,000 miles and stopping in 15 countries so far. Duncan's boat is in Australia, undergoing repairs and awaiting the end of cyclone season.

Duncan, 42, was born with congenital calaboma and has no vision in his right eye and 5 percent in his left. But in the middle of the ocean -- and especially in the middle of the night -- he's at no disadvantage to a sighted person. Water is the great equalizer, not only in sailing but in many other sports.

''People ask, `How do you do that? Aren't you going to kill yourself? What if you get rammed by a cruise ship?''' Duncan said while preparing to give a clinic on Biscayne Bay.

He does it using his sense of adventure, sailing skills, a heightened feel for the wind and waves and a Sendero GPS system with a voice note computer that gives directions. He even used the $3,000 device, about the size of a computer keyboard, to walk to a Starbucks from his hotel. Every 12 seconds it gave him a new cue. He used it to map a course on the bay, and he used it to get from San Francisco to Australia.

Navigating through ports is the trickiest part. That's when either Duncan or Habek goes to the bow with a monoscope and gives commands to avoid traffic.

''You put a lot of trust in the GPS system,'' Duncan said. ``Near Tahiti, we were going through a narrow channel with coral reef on either side. We'd never been there in our lives yet it was exactly how it was supposed to be. You go to a place blindly -- pardon the pun -- and you get there. It's amazing.''

Duncan and Habek survived a near-calamity 300 miles off the coast of New Caledonia during a bad storm in the Coral Sea. Duncan almost was washed overboard when a towering wave crashed on top of the boat.

''I grabbed onto a pole and hung on as everything in the cockpit dumped into the water,'' he said.

Their most interesting stop was at Palmerston in the Cook Islands, an isolated island with 67 residents.

Along the way, they have taught blind people how to sail.

''When my parents found out they had a blind kid they looked for role models and there weren't many besides Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles,'' said Duncan, who used to own a computer company in San Francisco. ``I learned to sail at age 13. It was clear I wouldn't be able to drive, so instead I got the keys to a sailboat.''

INSPIRING OTHERS

Duncan wants his voyage (which you can follow at www.BlindSailing.com) to inspire disabled people to broaden their horizons.

''I get treated one way when I have my cane in hand and an entirely different way when it's folded up,'' he said. ``I'm trying to show there's not such a big difference between a person with a disability and a person without one. That should be the case when you're interviewing for a job or ordering coffee at Starbucks or sailing.''

Or surfing. Billauer's message is similar to Duncan's: adapt and barriers disappear.

Billauer, 30, was about to join the pro surfing tour in 1996 when he broke his neck in a surfing accident. Rather than discard his passion, he adjusted his style. Now he lies prone on his board, props himself on his elbows and gets a little help from his friends, who push him into the waves.

''It's still the best feeling in the world,'' said Billauer who runs a foundation that teaches surfing to the disabled. ``And that feeling is -- freedom.''

Amputee missing foot, but she still has her junior black belt

By Lindsay Tice , Staff Writer
Friday, May 29, 2009 05:00 am

LEWISTON - Jaedyn Gousse makes the karate moves look effortless.

Kick, kick, kick. Turn, kick, kick. Tumble, roll, block. "Hi-ya!"

In the small class at Pelletiers Karate Academy, she's always the first or second to finish the routine - and finish perfectly. One of her instructors believes the 9-year-old, who recently earned her junior black belt, has the skills and talent to become a karate master.

The Auburn third-grader does it all with one foot.

"So far, people haven't really noticed because I do it so good," she said with a grin.

Jaedyn was born with fibula hemimelia, a disorder that affects the lower leg and foot. She was missing a toe and a bone in her lower left leg, and her tibia - the bone between knee and ankle - was shortened and bowed. Doctors told her parents, Jeff and Lisa Gousse, they had two options: limb lengthening or amputation.

Limb lengthening would require at least three major surgeries and a series of minor ones, plus work to correct Jaedyn's foot. She would likely spend her childhood in and out of hospitals.

But if they chose amputation, there would be no going back.

"It was an agonizing decision," Lisa Gousse said.

After meeting with specialists, the Gousses decided amputation would cause the least pain and offer the best chance of a normal life for their daughter. When Jaedyn was 10 and a half months old, doctors amputated her left foot at the ankle.

A few months later, she was walking with a prosthesis.

Years later, she decided she wanted to learn karate.

"I started dreaming about being a black belt," Jaedyn said.

Her parents always encouraged her to try activities, and they said yes to karate. Privately, Lisa Gousse asked Rich Pelletier, owner and instructor at Pelletiers Karate Academy in Lewiston, whether her missing foot would be a problem.

Pelletier had taught students with disabilities before, including one person who was blind. He had no reservations about enrolling the 7-year-old in his children's class.

"What I look at is what the kid can do when they get on the floor," he said.

Jaedyn, it turned out, could do everything. For three classes a week she ran with the other students during warm-ups, kept up during practices and perfected her katas (karate forms).

Jaedyn has done so well that she's a member of the karate school's demonstration team, a group that tours fairs, schools and other gatherings to demonstrate martial arts skills. Last month, she earned her junior black belt.

Karate is fun, Jaedyn said. "But it's kind of more work than fun because you try to get every move right."

There are few moves Jaedyn can't get right because of her foot. Her prosthesis doesn't bend at the ankle, which stops her from completing the perfect roundhouse kick. She substitutes a side kick.

Her foot doesn't limit her activities outside karate class, either. She's taken dance lessons and participated in cheering. This summer she'll attend activity summer camp, where she'll go to the beach and Funtown in Saco. Sometimes, at school or during one of her activities, someone will ask about her missing foot. The attention, she said, can be embarrassing. But she understands the curiosity.

"They've probably never encountered it before," she said.

At karate, it's rare for anyone to even notice she has a prosthesis, let alone question it.

"Maybe a new student," Pelletier said. "They'll look down. They'll look down again. It'll throw them off for a moment and then they're like, 'OK. Whatever.'"

Pelletier believes Jaedyn could rise to the highest karate level if she decides to stick with it. Jaedyn has no plans to quit.

She wants her full black belt.

Amputees win Capitol fight

By David Saleh Rauf - Express-News
When Mona Patel and Leslie Tramer started organizing a group of amputees pushing a proposal that would require private health insurers to pony up for at least 80 percent of the cost of prosthetic limbs and repairs, she knew they'd face a tough battle.



Lawmakers, health care providers and small businesses opposed to any insurance mandate would be lined up to kill the legislation. So Patel, a 36-year-old amputee and founder of a San Antonio support group for people who have lost limbs, and her “partner in crime” Tramer devised a strategy: Maintain a strong visible presence at the Capitol by getting as many amputees and their stories about fighting with insurance companies in front of lawmakers and their staffs.

Their ambitions were undeterred by physical handicaps: One day before the full House was scheduled to vote on the bill, a small group of amputees hit the offices of about 140 lawmakers. They passed out fact sheets and spoke about the more than 30,000 Texans who rely on private insurance to help pay for their prosthetics.

“We got a majority bipartisan vote the next day,” Patel said.

It was the beginning of an aggressive grass-roots lobbying effort that would culminate five weeks later when House Bill 806, a measure that orders private insurers to offer coverage for prosthetics equal to what Medicare provides its members, was sent to Gov. Rick Perry's desk. With little fanfare, Perry signed the bill into law earlier this month, making Texas the 16th state to enact what amputees call “prosthetic parity.” The bill takes effect Sept. 1.

“This is huge in the prosthetics world,” said Kim Rice, the mother of a Wetmore Elementary fifth-grader with a prosthetic leg that is fitted and maintained for free by the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas.

Rice was forced to find prosthetic options outside of San Antonio because her family's health insurance capped such coverage at $2,500 a year — thousands less than what it was going to cost in upkeep for her son's prosthetic every year.

The caps on prosthetic coverage that the Rice family faced are typical, activists say. The effect: Amputees are commonly left scrambling to find funding for prosthetics, ranging from $8,000 to $80,000, that they say help them return to fully functioning roles in society.

But with every insurance mandate passed by the Legislature, premiums in Texas continue to rise, critics warn. Texas' insurance plans already are subject to 55 mandates, making the Lone Star State one of the five most heavily regulated states in the country, according to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based conservative think tank.

Activists for HB 806 say the prosthetic mandate will increase the cost of premiums by about $4 a year, but opponents say any mandate will harm consumers by making insurance more expensive. Aside from the prosthetics bill, at least three other insurance mandates passed this session. They're waiting for Perry's signature.

“If you add up all the mandates, you see the impact,” said Jennifer Ahrens, executive director of Texas Association of Health Life Insurers.

Amputees pay those premiums, too. And when they lose a battle with their health insurer over prosthetics, some turn to the state for assistance.

Albert Garcia, for example, had his arm surgically removed nearly three years ago after he was hit by an SUV on a Northwest Side street. He spent the next two years battling with his insurance company until he finally asked the state for help to pay for his $80,000 motion-sensor-controlled arm. “It was basically the taxpayers paying for my prosthesis when it should have been my insurance company,” he said. “That's why HB 806 is so important.”

Widow of soldier killed in Iraq dedicates her Rock 'n' Roll Marathon run

By Don Norcross, Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. May 28, 2009
Michelle Bowman will carry the memory of her husband Robby along with her through her second Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. (K.C. Alfred / Union-Tribune) -

THE RACE
When: 6:30 a.m. Sunday
Start: Palm and 6th Avenue
Finish: Marine Corps Recruit Depot
Info: rnrmarathon.com

Michelle Bowman was expecting a delivery to her Fort Lewis, Wash., home. So when her doorbell rang early in the morning on Friday, April 13, 2007, she slipped on a robe, walked downstairs and peeked out the window.
When she saw two men dressed in Army uniforms, she knew.
Her husband had been killed.
“The only time the military comes to your doorstep,” says Bowman, “is if it's death.”
The chaplain and notification officer confirmed that Spc. Larry “Robby” Bowman had been killed by a roadside bomb outside Baghdad, Iraq.
Recalls Michelle, “I remember going upstairs, looking through my closet, my hands shaking, going, 'Oh God, Oh God.' ”

Come Sunday, Bowman, now 30, will join nearly 17,000 other runners, squeezed like cattle into corrals on the west side of Balboa Park for the 12th annual Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. She ran the race last year, finishing in 5 hours, 11 minutes.
There is an irony to Bowman becoming a marathoner.
Sitting in her Pacific Beach home, shooing two cats away from a visitor, Bowman says, “I'm not one of those people who (feel) running is my zen. I don't like running. I have to force myself to go out and do it.”
So why does she run?
Shortly after Bowman's death, his sister, Angela Sigmon, called Michelle. Sigmon and her husband were going to run a half marathon in Robby's memory. They wanted to know if Michelle would attend the race.
“Screw that,” said Michelle. “If anybody's running in memory of my husband, I'm in on that.”
They had T-shirts made in Robby's honor. On the back was a quote Bowman lived by: “Life has a taste that the sheltered will never know.”
Michelle wasn't much of a runner then. Two miles. That was her limit before training for that February 2008 half marathon. That's how far she used to run on Saturday mornings with Robby. He didn't like running much, either. But it kept him in shape for the Army's physical training. She still remembers their first run together.
It fell on her 27th birthday.
“I was dying,” she says. “It was pitiful. But he just kept encouraging me. 'C'mon, baby. You can do it.' ”
Inevitably during long-distance training there come times when the body rebels, longing to quit. Your feet ache. Your thighs throb. Your calves cramp. It becomes a mental game. And the mental game Bowman played during difficult workouts was to repeat her late husband's words like a mantra.
“C'mon, baby. You can do it.”

Michelle grew up in Perris, near Temecula. She moved to Lenoir, N.C., when she was 13and first saw Robby at a roller skating rink when she was 15.
“I saw him walk in across the room and I gasped,” says Bowman. “I grabbed my friend's arm and said, 'Who is that?' ”
She pauses, then adds, “It took me two years before he even had a clue who I was.”
They were friends long before the relationship turned serious. Near Thanksgiving 2003, more than nine years later, Robby returned home from his first tour of Iraq on emergency leave after his father died. Michelle happened to be visiting her family and attended the funeral.
“Our relationship changed after that,” she says.
On April 1, 2005, with Robby living in Fort Hood, Texas, and Michelle in San Diego, they eloped and were married.
When she thinks of her late husband, she remembers a man who was true to his Southern roots.
“He was just a good ol' Southern redneck, but totally proud of it,” she says. “I don't think I ever met anybody who didn't instantly take to him. He could walk into any room, not know a single person and walk out with a room full of new best friends.”
One of his favorite passions: barbecue.
“Literally, his favorite thing was to be on the grill,” she says. “He spent two hours the day before preparing the meat. And it couldn't be (a) gas (barbecue). Had to be charcoal.”
He was proud to be in the military.
“My husband loved being a soldier,” Bowman says.
She cried once during last year's Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, about 17½ miles into the race, where the course cuts through military housing near Mission Bay High. She saw military decals on cars, yellow ribbons, children running about in yards.
“I started crying,” she says, “bawling in the middle of the marathon.”
Bowman stayed in North Carolina for a month after burying her husband there. She chose to return to San Diego, where she had lived from 2001 to 2005.
“There was too much of him there (in North Carolina),” Michelle says. “For my healing process, I don't think I could be anywhere where I'd be surrounded by him constantly. San Diego was Robby neutral.”
Bowman has helped organize an annual run in her husband's memory in rural North Carolina. The first “Robby's Run,” a 5K, was held on April 13, 2008, the one-year anniversary of his death. The race has raised nearly $11,000. Bowman has targeted two military charities as beneficiaries. One focuses on military amputees and burn victims. The other focuses on mental health benefits for soldiers.
“She is nothing but an inspiration to me,” says Barbara Jane Braswell, Robby's mother. “If you've ever seen pictures of them together, they were very much in love. I love her to death.”

A few weeks before her husband died, Michelle and Robby decided that one day they would summit Washington's Mount Rainier.
Last August, on the day before her 30th birthday, with temperatures in the teens, Michelle completed the two-day summit. She walked into the crater, dug a hole with a pickax and buried a set of Robby's military dog tags. Then she removed a vial she had draped around her neck and spread some of his ashes.
“I was a sobbing mess,” she says. “I've done a lot to honor his memory, and to keep that spirit he had alive. I've also moved on with my life.”
She works as a manager at an upscale restaurant and wine bar. She's in a serious relationship, talking marriage and buying a home.
“I know (Robby) would want me to move on, get married, have the family I always wanted,” she says. “I told myself, only one of us died that day. It was a horrible thing, but I've still got to go on with my life.”
Asked what Robby would think of the woman who once needed to be pushed to jog two miles now running 26.2, she smiles, brushes back some of her long, dark hair and says, “He'd be like, 'That's my girl.' ”
Don Norcross: (619) 293-1803;

Wounded veteran Kortney Clemons takes on Oscar Pistorius at the Paralympic World Cup

Oscar Pistorius, the triple Paralympic gold medallist, will be the main draw in the athletics portion of the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester, at the Sport City Regional Arena, but lining up alongside the young South African in the 100m sprint will be the remarkable USA athlete Kortney Clemons.
By Gareth A Davies
Last Updated: 4:05PM BST 23 May 2009


Speed king: US national Paralympic 100m champion Kortney Clemons Photo: AP
Clemons was the first Iraq war veteran to qualify for the US Paralympic team and compete at the Beijing Games after losing a leg in roadside bomb when helping a colleague in 2005. Clemons insists he is "living proof that you can accomplish anything".

On Feb. 21, 2005, Clemons, then 24, a combat medic in the 1st Cavalry Division, went to the aid of a soldier whose Humvee had been blown off a dirt road outside Baghdad by an insurgent's bomb.

Oscar Pistorius: Great Britain's support for Paralympians is the best
Soldier blown up as he rescued wounded colleagueHe was readying the wounded soldier for a helicopter evacuation when a second bomb nearby killed three fellow medics and blew away Clemons' right leg from above the knee. It was five days before he was due to be discharged from the army.

Six months later Clemons began running with a prosthetic limb, insisting he went through a period of "re-introducing myself to myself". Who knows the dark places a man must go to replace the physical loss, literally, and seemingly, the end of his active lifestyle?

Yet Clemons insists he searched his soul for the reasons that God would want to take his leg, and found solace in sprinting.

"I came to the realisation that he did this for a reason. He wanted me to make something more of myself. I had to lose my leg to find the real me."

A few months after that uplifting first run he claimed the US national Paralympic title in the 100m sprint. He failed to win a medal in Beijing, but the single amputee continues to improve.

The native of Little Rock, Mississippi, has always loved sports. Before joining the army, he played junior college football and in spite of being 5ft10 and 145lbs, was a formidable defensive back. He has shown the same inspiration as a Paralympian.

Also on the track is one of Great Britain's greatest Paralympians, Danny Crates, the Paralympic record holder at 800m is back in action after injury, and contemplating retirement, while one of Britain's rising track and field stars, Nathan Stephens, the world junior champion at shot, discus and javelin, also competes.

Stephens has already been a summer and winter Paralympian for GB despite having his legs amputated when he was run over by a train on his 9th birthday.

Amputee, 5, is already a world beater on her bionic blades

By Tamara Cohen
Last updated at 7:29 AM on 19th May 2009

Add to My Stories He has been called the fastest man on no legs. But Oscar 'Blade Runner' Pistorius got a run for his money when five-year-old Ellie Challis challenged him to a race on their bionic feet.
Paralympian Pistorius, world record holder for double amputees at 100, 200 and 400 metres, may have made some allowance for age and the fact that Ellie's blades were fitted only last month.
But she had clearly learned quicker than he bargained for - Ellie crossed the line first in all four of their 15-metre races.



The youngster, from Little Clacton, Essex, lost her hands and lower legs after contracting meningitis at 16 months.
She was fitted with conventional prosthetic legs but found them painful so her parents Paul and Lisa contacted Dorset Orthopaedic who made her a junior version of the type of carbon-fibre blades used by 22-yearold Pistorius. Ellie is the youngest person to wear them and is making remarkable progress - as she proved against the South African paralympian.
Pistorius had both legs amputated below the knee at 11 months when doctors discovered he had no fibulas.

He runs using Cheetah Flex-Foot limbs made by a company called Ossur.
Ellie's are the same brand but are more difficult to walk on because her legs were amputated above the knee.
Ellie was cheered on by her twin Sophie, sister Taila, nine, and brother Connor, 11, at a sports centre in Enfield, North London. Pistorius will compete in Manchester on Sunday at the Paralympic World Cup, sponsored by BT, for whom he acts as an ambassador.

Surfer missing leg is 'Amp'd' to paddle out again

A Newport teen who had a leg amputated gets back on the surfboard
By LAYLAN CONNELLY
The Orange County Register
Comments 4| Recommend 2

Shane Lincoln stood on the sand at San Onofre State Beach, practicing his pop-up on a surfboard before getting into the water.

He pressed down on his left leg to see how the shocks were working, fidgeting with his screws to add more spring to his step.

It would be much different then when Lincoln, now 17, started surfing as a child.

Back then, he had both his legs intact.

Lincoln on Saturday morning went out for a surf session for the first time since having his left leg amputated nearly 3 years ago, joining a group of other amputee surfers for a program called "Amp'd."

The outing was organized by Amy Ginsburg, an employee at Hanger, an Orange County based-prosthetics company. The surf groups – who have been meeting up occasionally since August - are made up of patients, but soon Ginsburg wants to open the surf outings up to others.



"It's just a cool way for them to find something else they can try, and be good at," she said. "I like to get people back to doing what they used to do."

Surfing with other amputees allows them to share tips, and to see that missing a limb doesn't mean you can't do what you love.

Before hitting the water, Wayne Tanimine chatted with Lincoln to share his surf technique.



Tanimine, 55, takes his prosthetic off and leaves it on the sand, riding waves on one leg in a crouched position.

Tanimine lost his leg in 1975 after a bout with joint cancer. It took him about 10 years to get back in the water, and these days he can be found surfing just about every day.

"I want to do what I can to help," he said. "I know what it's like."

He has to worry about things like not slipping on rocks while walking on one leg in and out of the water, or what time high tide hits so his leg doesn't get swept into the ocean.

Lincoln decided to do it different than Tanimine, leaving his sports prosthetic on while in the water.

"I know I'm not going to be shredding, but no matter what, I'll be in the water, so it will be a good day," Lincoln said.

Lincoln's injury happened 2 years, 8 months, and 29 days ago, when a drunk driver smashed into him as he helped push a friend's car up a hill in Newport Beach after it broke down.

"I just heard (my friend) yell 'look out'!" the former Newport Harbor High student recalled. "I was totally frozen. I just saw headlights."

His leg was mostly severed. A 4-inch piece of his femur was left in the street.

Doctors thought they might be able to reattach his leg. But after 38 surgeries and months of unbearable pain, he made the decision to have it cut off.

"I'd rather have a fake leg that works than a real one that doesn't. I just decided it was time," he said.

Life got tough after that. The pain was severe, and soon he was hooked to the pain medication – which then led to other drugs.

"It got rough, and I'd break down in tears," he said. "I was constantly in pain. I got in the mindset 'I'm not ever going to be able to do anything again."

After a long struggle, his family eventually had enough and sent him to rehab. Now, he's been off drugs for six months, and is slowly pulling his life back together.

On Saturday, he got a big piece of his life back: the thrill of riding a wave.

As he paddled out, his father Scott asked him if he wanted to give it a shot in the whitewash – where the waves are a bit more gentle – but Lincoln powered through to the outside sets.

After paddling for a few waves, he finally got into one with enough power to move his board forward.

He slowly put his hands on the top board to push his body up, but hesitated too much and lost balance, his board flying out from under him.

He got back on the board to try again.

On his next attempt, he was quicker – and in a quick second he was standing up and riding a wave, flying down the line.

His dad cheered from his surfboard.

"That was awesome," his dad said, as Lincoln went back out for more.

He grabbed his son's hand: "Just one of many, son."

After riding about five waves, Lincoln was done for the day, stoked on his accomplishment.

"It was sooo sick. I didn't think it would be that easy," Lincoln said. "It was epic."

Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com

Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back.

by Joey Nowak | The Grand Rapids Press
Saturday May 09, 2009, 9:35 PM

Elizabeth Stone always wanted to run. What was stopping her was not the will to do so, but the physical ability.

Born with only one leg, the 18-year-old Grand Rapids Christian High School senior has had a prosthetic leg since she was 4-years-old.

Then, three months ago, she had a running leg put on so she could compete in events like the River Bank Run 25K.

On Saturday, Stone crossed the finish line in the event she had been dreaming of competing in with an unofficial time of about two hours and 40 minutes.

"I feel pretty good," she said. "I had a little bit more energy at the end than I thought. I'm happy with the result. My goal was to stay under 3 hours and I did that."

Strangers befriended Stone throughout the event, cheering her throughout the course and offering such encouraging words as "You're my hero" at the finish line.

Since beginning to run with the new running foot about three months ago, the longest race Stone had competed in was a 15K training race.

"I'm really excited," she said. "It's been a goal. I've only been training for three months and I said I hope I'll be able to finish and compete in this and I did that. So I'm really happy."

With her first 25K under her belt, Stone has loftier goals in mind.

Having taken the first step in such a short period of time, she's confident she can strive to achieve loftier dreams.

"In the future, I'd like to do marathons and an Iron Man," she said. "But that's a little bit in the future."

Girl doesn’t let disability slow her down

For More Photos click here!
By Ray Brewer

Tue, May 5, 2009 (2:29 p.m.)

Boulder City track athlete competes with prosthetic limb
Danyell Harding will never forget her first practice with the Boulder City High track team.

She nearly quit the squad five minutes into her initial workout as she labored during warm-ups, jogging twice around the track for a half mile.

Her teammates moved into specialized training, but Harding was still struggling with one of the sport’s fundamentals — running.

As an infant, Harding had her right leg amputated below the knee and has walked with the help of a prosthetic limb her entire life. Her leg was damaged at birth.

Now a freshman, she had avoided playing sports. She cried uncontrollably both times her father tried to take her to a youth soccer practice when she was younger. But some friends who live in her neighborhood were on the track team and convinced her to give it a try.

“Everyone has been so encouraging toward me. My friends told me how laid back track was and how there were no cuts, so I would be on the team,” she said. “I decided I will try whatever. If I couldn’t run, I could throw.”

Fast forward three short months.

Harding, who competes in the shot put and discus, jogs in the middle of the pack during the warm-up run. She smiles and talks to her teammates about school and everything else teenagers gossip about.

Harding didn’t score any points for Boulder City this spring, but if you talk to most of her teammates, they say her participation alone is an accomplishment more impressive than winning a meet.

“It’s fun to see her out here because she never wanted to do sports before,” said teammate Amber Smith, who along with her twin sister, Ashley, have been friends with Harding since she moved to town when she was 3 years old. “I’m glad she stayed with it.”

Harding said she remembers looking down at her blue and gold uniform at her first meet and just being thrilled to represent her school.

“She comes out and always tries her best,” Boulder City coach Steve Roe said. “Everyone enjoys her. She is a good Boulder City kid.”

One of the disadvantages of competing with a prosthetic leg comes in twisting and turning to throw the discus. Having no ankle to turn on has made things more difficult, Roe said.

Harding’s personal best throw in the discus is 48 feet, 10 inches, which is about 18 feet farther than her throws at the beginning of the year. She improved nearly five feet in the shot put with a top throw of 18-9.

Roe said Harding’s scores are comparable to most girls in their first year and said her petite frame and 5-foot-1 height are more limiting than competing with a prosthetic limb.

“She can become competitive for us,” said Roe, who figures Harding will be able to score points for the Eagles by the time she is a junior.

Harding is full of stories from her inaugural season.

One she chuckles while telling comes from a practice before her first meet. Roe let the girls test themselves in a variety of events and Harding attempted the hurdles.

She fell while trying to clear the first hurdle. As teammates looked at her, and some rushed over to see if she was injured, Harding started laughing.

She has always viewed wearing a prosthetic with humor. She knows some people stare at her at school and on the track, but she does not let it bother her.

“I feel like I have a normal life,” she said. “I always stay upbeat and positive.”

Nothing keeps boy from finishing triathlon

He swims, bikes, runs in event with one leg and prosthetic, parental help
By Roger Bull Story updated at 12:01 PM on Monday, May. 4, 2009

Tim Houston entered his first triathlon Sunday morning, and he finished every bit of it - the swim, the bike and the walk/run. His mother wasn't so sure how he'd do on the bike ride, his prosthetic leg has been chafing him a bit. But he made it all the way from start to finish.

Oh, by the way, Tim is 5 years old.

This is the first year the YMCA has held the First Coast Kids Triathlon, and there was no shortage of kids. Officials had to shut down registration after about 501 of them signed up. Tom Gildersleeve, one of the organizers, said that the event is already the third largest children's triathlon in the country.



The athletes and their parents gathered early Sunday morning at the University of North Florida. They wheeled their bicycles into the fenced transition area, parked them and went out to the big tent to wait for instructions.

Tim walked most of the way there, without his prostheses, but pushing a small walker he sometimes uses around the house. He's used to this. He lost his left leg at mid-thigh to a blood clot when he was 21 days old. He got his first prostheses at 16 months, but recently received a new one through the Challenged Athletes Foundation.

He'd already been swimming for a couple of years, but his new leg gives much more flexibility and stability, his father, Jim Houston, said. Tim used to be bothered by all the attention, by the staring, Dad said, but he's getting better about that.

The task in front of Tim and all the other 8-and-younger athletes was this: Swim 100 meters in the pool, ride 3 miles on a bicycle and then finish with a half-mile walk/run.

His mother, Carolyn Houston, carried him into the aquatics center, placed a swim fin on his right foot. And there he sat waiting on the bleachers, just another kid in a sea of goggles and orange swim caps.

When it was his turn, he dropped into the water and off he swam passing, that's passing, other swimmers fairly easily. From there, Mom took him to the locker room where she helped him get his leg, the one he calls his Star Wars leg, on. He walked to the transition area, got on his bike and off he went again, with Mom running alongside.

So many children out swimming, biking and running meant that parents were just about as busy. They ran from spot to spot, either to get a few more photos, a few more seconds of video or to holler important tips, like "Go! Go!"

As the young contestants returned from their bike ride, some still were sprinting, as they had every stroke, every step, every pedal of the way. Others quite clearly had had enough of the whole thing and were just barely moving along.

When Tim finally returned from his bike ride, he had a full escort. Not only was Mom still running alongside, several of the adult riders who had been going back and forth to keep an eye on things, rode alongside, encouraging him to keep going.

He finished his ride, gave Dad a quick kiss and headed off down the sidewalk lined with people who cheered him on. He had been at it for about an hour, and he was slowing down a bit. But he kept moving.



Tim's older brother Brett, who turns 8 next week, already had finished. It wasn't too hard, he said, though he confessed he did have to walk a few times on that final leg.

Brett keeps an eye his brother and is pretty protective, his father said. But Brett did admit that sometimes Tim is a bit of trouble. (You know, little brothers.)

Mom left Tim to go on his own for his final dash to the finish line. Brett and Dad were there, so were dozens of others who gathered at the fence to cheer on that particular testament to the human spirit in the form of a 40-pound boy with glasses.

Tim got his medal, a bottle of water and whole bunch of congratulations.

"He can do anything he wants," Dad said. And Mom Carolyn, who ran with him most of the way, noted that Tim was now a triathlete.

"I've never done a triathlon," she said. "But now he has."

As for Tim, he didn't have a lot to say. "What was the best part," he was asked, "was it finishing?" "Swimming," he said, "when I beat them."

roger.bull@jacksonville.com

(904) 359-4296

Lehigh Valley golf tournament raises money, spirits for those who've lost limbs

By Brian Callaway | Of The Morning Call
April 25, 2009



Cameron Clapp 23, of San Luis Obispo, CA uses one arm to hit with his iron from the fairway at the Annual Amputee Support Golf Outing at Wedgewood Golf Course in Coopersburg on Friday, April 24, 2009. Cameron is a triple amputee and has been competing nationally in swimming, running and golf events. (RICH SCHULTZ/SPECIAL TO TMC / April 25, 2009)

Cameron Clapp ambled toward the tee, took a moment to set up his stroke, then blasted the golf ball down the fairway.

''Nice shot, Cameron,'' the other members of his foursome cheered. ''Nice.''

''It's good to get out and be physically active,'' Clapp said a little bit later. ''This is fun. I'm just out here having a good time.''

With that he returned to his golf cart, using his left hand and the pincers where his right one used to be to put his putter in the bag, then the microprocessors in his prosthetic legs to work the vehicle's pedals.

The 23-year-old Californian with a young surfer's drawl and a veteran runner's determination has been a triple amputee for nearly eight years, having lost both legs and his right arm in a train accident.

Since then, he's taken up golf, participated in races and traveled the country speaking to, and on behalf of, his fellow amputees.

''I have obviously a ... disability to most people,'' said Clapp, who's acted in TV shows such as ''My Name is Earl'' and is a spokesman for a prosthetics company. ''But to me, I don't see myself as having a disability.''

The local amputee support group has dozens of members, several of whom act as peer counselors, visiting area hospitals and other places to meet with new amputees and help them adjust.

Kim Bartman, the Lehigh Valley Hospital nurse who runs the group, said many people who've lost a limb suffer as much emotionally as they do physically.

'' People think their life is over,'' she said. ''They think they can't do anything.''

The group also raises money to help amputees pay for prosthetic limbs. Even the most simple prosthetics, which lack joints for flexible movement, can cost several thousand dollars. More advanced prosthetics cost more than the average SUV -- Clapp said each prosthetic leg he wore Friday cost about $38,000.

Clapp said he's benefited from good insurance, so the prosthetics haven't bankrupted his family.

Bartman said some people aren't that lucky.

Many amputees struggle to get insurance companies to pay for prosthetics, she said, especially the more expensive ones that allow easier movement.

The money raised at Friday's tournament won't be enough to cover the cost of most prosthetics. Bartman said the group has used its reserves for things such as helping amputees cover the co-pays needed for services under many insurance plans.

The tournament has other benefits, too.

Interest in the annual golf outing has grown since its inception. So many people tried to register this year, Bartman said, that she had to turn away about 50 -- the 27-hole course only allows 200 to play comfortably. Dozens of the players were local amputees.

Ricky Kemp, a Bethlehem Township man who lost part of his left leg five years ago in a motorcycle accident, said seeing so many people come out to support local amputees was encouraging.

He also said it's crucial to know there's a support system out there for people who've lost a limb.

"When I woke up in the hospital and ... saw my leg was gone, I felt alone at the time to go through my ordeal," he said. "To have a support group to help you through it -- it's amazing."

11-year-old Alabama boy, whose legs were amputated at birth, runs, skateboards and competes in baseball

Posted by Kelli Hewett Taylor--Birmingham News April 23, 2009 6:00 AM

Hasaan Hawthorne's take on living as an amputee surprises a lot of people.
"I think it's funner having prosthetics than real legs because you get to do more stuff," said Hasaan, 11, a fifth-grader at Valley Intermediate School in Pelham.

He has shared his philosophy with a substitute teacher whose husband was getting prosthetic running legs, and a student whose grandfather was undergoing amputation.

"I like to inspire people and help people," said Hasaan (pronounced huh-SAHN). "I don't like to see people sad, I like to cheer people up. I'm just like other people, just with different legs."

Hasaan has been part of two championship youth baseball teams and an all-star team with able-bodied children. He excels in track and field for kids with disabilities.

Hasaan was born without shins, a condition called tibial hemimelia.

His parents, Demond and Felecia Hawthorne, reeled from the medical choices for their day-old son.

"We had never had such an experience, being first-time parents," Felecia said. "It was pretty hard."

The main options: Allow Hasaan's legs and feet to grow, knowing he would require a wheelchair, or amputate his feet and legs through the knees.

Amputation would let him sit at a school desk and walk with prosthetics.

At 4 months old, Hasaan had the surgery. As a youngster, he moved around using Tonka trucks and push cars.

Hasaan got his first prosthetic legs at 14 months, and it wasn't long before his athletic side began to emerge, particularly in baseball -- a shock to his football-loving father.

"I didn't even think about sports," Demond said. "He had a pair of walking legs, strictly for walking. Just walking in them is supposed to use the same energy we use to run."

By 4, Hasaan was running.

"At first it was hard, so I learned to skip and jump," Hasaan explained. "Sometimes when you jump off, the (prosthetic) feet turn."

At 5, Hasaan said he wanted to try out for baseball, first through the YMCA and then with Pelham Youth Baseball.

"I wanted him to prove he could play with them and not feel he wasn't good enough," Demond said. "But when he started playing, he was advanced for his age."

Hasaan could balance while batting and fielding, earning him spots playing first base and third base. He even helps his younger brother, Chase.

Hasaan's athleticism often breaks the walking legs, requiring weeks for repairs.

In 2007, Hasaan qualified for a grant from the Challenged Athletes Foundation for a set of curved running legs. The legs, which cost tens of thousands of dollars, increased his speed and improved his baseball skills.

"I like that you get to make a bunch of friends and you get to run," Hasaan said about playing for the Pelham Panthers. "I think able-bodied sports are more of a challenge. I just try to catch up with everyone else and impress my coach."

Unkind words

Some of the hardest moments for the Hawthornes are the stares and the pity.

Mother, father and son have all overheard adults and children making fun of Hasaan with names like Robokid or wild stories about train accidents taking his legs.

"We teach him that life is not fair and to have faith in God and trust in God," Demond said. "We don't want Hasaan to rely on us to take away the bad guys and make the bad stuff go away. We want him to live a proactive life on his own."

Hasaan is now contemplating football or wrestling.

The youngster loves a challenge, and his spirit is often a reminder for his parents and others who know him. Hasaan confidently plans to be the first above-the-knee double amputee to play college baseball, then play for the New York Yankees, like Derek Jeter. He expects to own a Corvette and retire from sports as an orthodontist.

"It's easy as you get older to set limitations, and he provides an example that maybe we shouldn't put these limits on ourselves," Demond said. "We try to instill in Hasaan as he grows that God has made him for a purpose, and God doesn't make mistakes. At his age, Hasaan has probably made more of an impact on people's lives than I will ever make."

click here for more great photos.

Paralympic athletes teach area amputees a better way to get around

by Cole Waterman | Special to The Bay City Times
Thursday April 23, 2009, 8:00 AM

Seven years ago, doctors amputated Dalton Roberts' left leg above the knee as a result of bone cancer. Since then, the 12-year-old Beaverton boy has walked with the help of a prosthetic limb. But walking isn't enough; Dalton wants to run and jump.

So Dalton spend Wednesday afternoon at Delta College with about 60 other amputees who attended Amputee Walking School.

Taught by Paralympic track and field gold medalists Dennis Oehler and Todd Schaffhauser, the participants learned new techniques to strengthen their lower muscles and get a better handle on controlling their prosthetic limbs.


Rebecca Craig | Times Photo
Paralympic track and field gold medalist Dennis Oehler demonstrates for 14-year-old Tyler Adams, right, how he can balance in a squat while wearing a prosthesis."Unfortunately, amputees don't get enough time in rehabilitation," Oehler said. "We needed to do something to develop on-going training."

The additional training was helping Dalton, said his father, Tom Roberts, who brought his son to the training session to "build strength and walk better and more efficiently."

Saginaw-based Michigan Orthopedic Services sponsored the event, which brought in participants from ages 12 to 72.

Oehler and Schaffhauser, both of Long Island, N.Y., have taught their class throughout the world and have instructed more than 10,000 lower extremity amputees.

Scott Baranek, a certified prosthetist with Michigan Orthopedic Services, spearheaded the event. A Bay City native lost his leg in a 1994 motorcycle accident, Baranek wants to bring resources to local amputees who may not have had enough physical therapy.

"It's a two- to three-year journey to get full recovery after a limb loss," Baranek said. "It's lucky if patients get four months of physical therapy."


Rebecca Craig | Times Photo
Tyler Adams, 14, lost his foot in a boating accident in August. He and his parents, Scott and Jolene Adams, and his 13-year-old brother, Joseph, turned out for the session.Once therapy stops, Baranek said there is a tendency for amputees to plateau, content to get by walking with a walker. He is hoping to "raise the level of awareness and expectations of patients and healthcare providers."

The most important issue is developing strong muscles so amputees can walk without a cane, or even run, Baranek said.

"Strength training is the key to using the proper muscle groups and ambulating properly," he said.

Kim Peake, referral development manager for Michigan Orthopedic Services, said the company tries to give patients ways to improve their abilities after the therapy ends.

"What we try to do is instead of making an artificial limb and saying 'see you later,' we give continual care," she said.

Mike Spitz, director of Delta's Physical Therapist Assistant program, said Baranek came to him, asking for Delta's help with Wednesday's event.

Spitz hopes Wednesday's event becomes a regular occurrence.

"We'd like to make this a monthly event, an actual program these people go through and each time they'd come out they'd learn and grow and progress," he said.

"Scott really recognizes what we're trying to accomplish with this," said Oehler, adding that he'd like to see the program become a monthly event. "Going monthly gives (amputees) opportunities to learn more and progress. It's good, exciting stuff."

Tyler Adams, 14, son of Scott and Jolene Adams of Sterling, had his left leg amputated below the knee on Aug. 5, following a boating accident. At Wednesday's class, he worked with his brother Joe, 12, to better hone his strength and balance.

"He's doing exceptionally well," said Jolene Adams. "He runs, plays second base in baseball, plays basketball, rides his bicycle and jumps on his pogo stick."

No elbows, no knees, no problem: Amputee set for MMA

Light-heavyweight Steve Cantwell jokingly told me last week that he wouldn't mind fighting someone without arms.

Too bad he can't make the cut to 135 pounds.

Kyle Maynard — described as a "congenital amputee" — was born without elbows, hands, knees or feet, but with plenty of athletic ambition. He compiled a 35-16 record as a high school wrestler and won an ESPY in 2004 for "best athlete with a disability." USA TODAY profiled him in 2004, going so far as to label him "The Ultimate Fighter" in the days before the term became associated with Spike TV's reality show.

He has a book and a documentary. He opened his own gym in December.

He wants to try martial arts at 135 pounds, but his home state of Georgia denied him an MMA license in 2007. Now he's going to give it a shot in Alabama, which doesn't regulate the sport.

"You know, just do it in an unsanctioned state, that way I can get that first one under my belt and hopefully build a little bit more of a legitimate case that I would be able to, in fact, defend myself in a fight," Maynard told MMA Fanhouse.

The 23-year-old Maynard started training jiu-jitsu at Hardcore Gym in Athens, Ga., and currently works with former world champion Paul Creighton. Maynard has competed under the auspices of the North American Grappling Association:

His short limbs present an obvious disadvantage, but he has certain unique characteristics that could help: low center of gravity; an unusually powerful torso and upper body compared to anyone else in his weight class; and he always counts as a grounded opponent, so can't be struck be knees or kicks to the head. The video above also the unusual difficulties of pulling guard on him — if he's on top, he probably has an easier time than most grapplers in maintaining positional control.

(Posted by Sergio Non)

Dual amputee, wounded in Iraq, gets special 'power knees'

Click here for VIDEO

WASHINGTON - It's an exciting new day for the more than 800 war veterans who've lost their limbs in combat. Thursday, the U.S. Army rolled out a new generation of the world's first battery-powered artificial knee to make walking a lot easier.

This is version two of the world's first and only battery-powered artificial leg, designed to restore dignity, mobility and independence to these soldiers who've lost the ability to walk while fighting for their country.

The new one's smaller, three pounds lighter and smarter; it learns while you walk.

Lt. Colonel Greg Gadson says it feels a lot more natural but walking with battery-power takes some getting used to.

An Iraq war veteran, Gadson said, "It's sort of like if you were driving a school bus and someone put you in a sports car. You know, you still know how to drive, but it's quite a different feeling."

He lost both legs to a roadside bomb in Iraq two years ago, leaving this former West Point football player to re-learn how to get from point A to point B.

After just a few days, he can walk a mile. Balance is still a bit of a challenge. What's tough: coordinating what you feel with what you see while walking and getting used to being so far off the ground.

"I can already see myself doing things that I would normally not do, like maybe I might go shopping now, and browse," Gadson said.

Certified Prosthetist Michael Corcoran said, "For him, it's a long way off the ground, tough feeling, like falling off a table."

Gadson is the guinea pig for this new prosthesis that could be ready for amputees in a year.

"He's been a leader on the field, a leader in combat, now a leader in rehabilitation," Lt. Col. Paul Pasquina, M.D., of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, said.

Leading the way to for America's wounded heroes, step by step.

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